Francesco Santoro

ALTEC Spa • Program Manager of the Technology and Space Exploitation Business Line

Francesco Santoro received his degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy and gathered over 35 years of experience in the Aerospace Industry growing a very wide range of experience and relationship with the major Space Agencies, in particular ASI and ESA and commercial Companies. His current position is Program Manager of the Technology and Space Exploitation business line at ALTEC S.p.A., Torino Italy. He has recently been appointed as member of the Board of Directors of Digisky, an ALTEC participated Company operating in the field of Earth Observation through proprietary solutions dedicated to a variety of industries including agriculture, utilities, large infrastructures & environmental monitoring. In this workframe, Francesco is Program Manager of the ESA Skymetry Program, a web-based service that offers a wide range of monitoring solutions dedicated to the needs of multiple industries such as transportation, energy and water infrastructures, based on the integration of EO change-detection satellites services with the execution of selective aerial mapping missions intended to check and analytically qualify the reasons for the detected change. He is also Program Manager of the ASI SINAV research program aimed at creating a fast autonomous navigation system for martian rovers supported by algorithms for analyzing panoramic images acquired by rovers and aerial platforms during autonomous and collaborative planetary exploration missions, using "Deep Learning" methods. Francesco has gathered extended experience in development, operations and ground segment of scientific satellites, human spaceflight, multiple initiatives of commercial access to space including in particular suborbital flights initiatives, cubesats, air launch systems and spaceports, with multiple international colocations. Francesco has very actively been involved in the establishment in Italy of a suborbital spaceflight initiative, as well as in new strategic initiatives of access to space. Francesco is an active member of a working group led by ENAC (The Italian Civil Aviation Authority) aimed at setting up a suborbital spaceflight regulatory system in Italy both for spaceport and operators. Within the ALTEC's Commercial Direction, he was Capture Leader for New Generation Space Flight Services. He was Project Manager for the new Suborbital Commercial flight initiatives and Spaceports requirements definition, within the Advanced Projects and Studies division. He was systems and operations engineer, was involved in studies and initiatives on hypersonic and suborbital flights and served as Deputy Ground Segment System Engineer for the ESA IXV reentry demonstrator Program. For the International Space Station Program he was resident for 14 years at NASA Kennedy Space Centre as responsible for the Residents Team at the Italian Space Agency (ASI) Office as well as mission controller at NASA Johnson Space CenterHouston. He was responsible for development of Ground Operations of the MPLM Program (Multi Purpose Logistics Module), developed within the ASI (Italian Space Agency) /NASA bilateral agreements for the International Space Station. Francesco is Chair/Co-Chair of specific committees of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), in particular the Commercial Spaceflight and Safety Committee and the Space Transportation Committee and is author and co-author of specific papers on the issues of competence. He supports education activities by intensively collaborating with Universities and acting as Industrial Tutor to support internships and graduation thesis. Francesco has actively being involved with IAC for several years and in particular participated to the Congresses in Beijing, Montreal, Guadalajara, Adelaide, Jerusalem, Paris. Francesco has also wide experience in conducting initiatives with South East Asia Countries (Malaysia) facilitating their plans to foster access to space.

Events

International Astronautical Congress 2024

14-18 October 2024

Milan, Italy

Participation:

Participation