Sitael SpA

SITAEL is a 100 % Italian space company, part of Angel Holding (led by Cav. Vito Pertosa, with over 3 000 employees), specialized in the manufacture of next-generation satellites, plasma electric propulsion systems for satellites, and electronic subsystems for space missions.

Today, under the leadership of CEO Chiara Pertosa, the company employs over 260 highly specialized professionals and operates in Italy and abroad in the following locations:

Mola di Bari - the company’s headquarters and hub for primary design, engineering and production activities, featuring Europe’s most modern satellite assembly plant, which includes facilities for space qualification of satellites, including their electronic subsystems;

Pisa - an operational base for the design and production of satellite electronics, and for the design, manufacture and testing of satellite electric propulsion systems;

Forlì, Torino, Milano e Roma - offices dedicated to the design of space systems and subsystems.

SITAEL has taken part in over 30 international space missions (including NASA’s AMS-02 antimatter detector, operational on the ISS since 2011, and ESA’s Solar Orbiter, flying in close proximity to the Sun since 2020) and partners with leading launch service providers such as Arianespace and SpaceX. The company also stands out for its Electric Propulsion Department, one of the few in the world developing Hall-effect electric thrusters and hosting the largest Space Simulator in Europe. In 2017, SITAEL achieved the world’s first demonstration of the ram-EP, an engine capable of generating thrust without an onboard propellant tank by “breathing”—i.e. capturing and ionizing residual particles from the rarefied atmosphere at 200 km altitude.

In 2024, as the first in Europe, SITAEL operated a sub-100 kg satellite—entirely designed and manufactured in-house (microHETSat), fully electric—maneuvering it over tens of kilometers in orbit using Italian satellite electric propulsion, thereby making its global debut.

The Italian Space Agency’s PLATiNO program is being developed by SITAEL together with a consortium of Italian firms led by SITAEL, which includes Leonardo, Thales Alenia Space Italia and Airbus Defence and Space Italia. It will culminate, at the end of 2025, in the orbital insertion of a next-generation, “all-electric”, multi-mission satellite—designed to deliver a wide range of services and inherently optimized for deployment in satellite constellations. Despite its compact size—under 300 kg—PLATiNO delivers unique pointing accuracy and agility performance and is suitable for all low-Earth-orbit missions, from Earth observation to telecommunications and scientific and technology demonstrations, while ensuring reduced development and operational costs. The launch of the first two satellites is planned, beginning in 2026, with PLATiNO-1 (equipped with an innovative synthetic aperture radar – SAR) followed by PLATiNO-2 (equipped with a NASA JPL sensor called MAIA for atmospheric pollution monitoring).

Among other programs currently underway at SITAEL:

PLATiNO for IRIDE: SITAEL is building, for ESA – the European Space Agency, the five largest and most powerful satellites of the IRIDE Earth-observation constellation, each outfitted with a hyperspectral sensor for environmental monitoring, precision agriculture and climate-change studies. The IRIDE satellites will be ready in 2026.

PLATiNO for EAGLE-1: SITAEL is delivering, for Luxembourg’s SES, a cutting-edge satellite for ultra-secure quantum communications under ESA’s Scylight programme—pioneering a laser-based data-transmission service founded on QKD (Quantum Key Distribution) technology.

SITAEL is also producing key electronic units for flagship missions missions, including the mass-memory unit for Space Rider (ESA’s autonomous robotic laboratory) and the electronic payload for CHIME, the Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission Earth-observation satellite of the European Commission. In 2021, SITAEL launched the development of a state-of-the-art “Satellites Factory” in Mola di Bari: a clean room of 1200 square meters —the most advanced of its kind in Italy and Europe—with zero-emission operations powered by an on-site photovoltaic plant. Backed by PNRR funding and established as a public–private partnership with the Italian Space Agency, this facility has been delivered under the SPACE FACTORY 4.0 project and partially funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). In addition to the clean room, the Space Qualification Center enables on-site (zero-kilometer) verification of newly built satellites in a simulated space environment—reducing turnaround times and enhancing quality—while ramping up production capacity to 30 satellites per year at 500 kg each and 60 satellites per year at 100 kg each. Among the technological jewels of the Satellite Factory is the “anechoic chamber,” a specialized laboratory fully RF-shielded, sound-proofed and isolated from electromagnetic interference; it is the largest installation of its kind in Southern Italy and among the most advanced in the country.

With a volume of 100 cubic meters, it enables full electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing—interference, noise, solar‐storm hardness tests, and more—on entire satellites as well as on individual space‐borne electronic units. It can accommodate satellites with deployed appendages—solar arrays and antennas—up to 12 meters in span.

Participation

• International Astronautical Congress (IAC) > 2023 74th IAC > SPONSORS
• 2020 71st IAC > Sponsors & Exhibitors & Media Partners > Sponsors