Space is the new frontier of Made in Italy. The concept of spreading manufacturing throughout the stars was developed by Thales Alenia Space, a partnership between Thales and the Italian company Leonardo, and Space Cargo Unlimited. The two recently announced the signing of a contract for the development of REV1, the first orbiting space factory, as well as the creation of a Space Cargo Unlimited branch in Turin. Thales Alenia Space, which will be in charge of design, engineering, and development, will pave the way for a genuine democratization of access to space, while Space Cargo Unlimited intends to run a fleet of cargo vehicles for commercial purposes that are able to return unmannedly (autonomously) to Earth in order to take use of the special potential of microgravity for business uses. The orbiting space factory will be utilized for specialized missions, especially in the domains of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and novel materials, where it will be able to produce the unique laboratory conditions and "clean rooms" required for this sort of study and manufacturing.
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