Their mission was to convince Kenyatta to sign a pact to allow Italy to establish a space centre at the remote village of Ngomeni in Magarini constituency in Kilifi. “The idea of a space centre came when we (Italy) were at war with the Soviet Union,” said Esposito. Esposito said that Italy had initially identified a place in Somalia where it planned to put up the space centre but eventually settled on Kenya. The Luigi Broglio Space Centre on the mainland sits on 8.6 acres. Space researchThe Italian multi-billion space research programme began in 1959 with the creation of the Centro Ricerche Aerospaziali (CRA) at the University of Rome.

Source: Standard Digital May 02, 2021 07:30 UTC