155-541: Vega ( Italian : Vettore Europeo di Generazione Avanzata , French : Vecteur européen de génération avancée , lit. ' Vector European Generation Advanced ' ) was an expendable small-lift launch vehicle operated by Arianespace , produced by Avio , and jointly developed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Development began in 1998 and
310-520: A bunker and a self-propelled structure to assist assembly of the stages; this site was built over the original launch pad for the retired Ariane 1 launcher. In September 2005, the successful completion of key tests on the Vega's solid rocket motor igniters, a key milestone, was reported. In November 2005, European Space Agency (ESA) declared its desire for the development and deployment of an electric propulsion-powered module to work in conjunction with
465-689: A local language of Italy , most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin. Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the third-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union (13% of the EU population) and it
620-488: A 1000 kg payload into a 700 km polar orbit. From the onset, the first of three stages would be based on the solid booster of the existing Ariane 5 expendable launch system while the second and third stages would make use of the in-development Zefiro rocket motor. However, it was recognised to be a costly project and thus difficult for Italy alone to finance; accordingly, international partners were sought early on in order to proceed with development. In April 1998, it
775-579: A consequence its citizens became eligible to apply to the 2022 ESA Astronaut group , applications for which were scheduled to close one week later. The deadline was therefore extended by three weeks to allow Lithuanians a fair chance to apply. Slovakia's Associate membership came into effect on 13 October 2022, for an initial duration of seven years. The Association Agreement supersedes the European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement, which entered into force upon Slovakia's subscription to
930-455: A considerably more demanding flight profile and carried the type's first commercial payload, was also successful. In the aftermath of this second launch, European Space Agency (ESA) declared the Vega rocket to be "fully functional". The lapse of more than one year between the inaugural flight and the second one was mainly due to the fact that the Italian manufacturer had to completely redevelop
1085-458: A full member of the ESA do so in 3 stages. First a Cooperation Agreement is signed between the country and ESA. In this stage, the country has very limited financial responsibilities. If a country wants to co-operate more fully with ESA, it signs a European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement, albeit to be a candidate for said agreement, a country must be European. The ECS Agreement makes companies based in
1240-603: A full member of the ESA on 1 January 2025, when the current Association Agreement expires. Latvia became the second current associated member on 30 June 2020, when the Association Agreement was signed by ESA Director Jan Wörner and the Minister of Education and Science of Latvia , Ilga Šuplinska in Riga . The Saeima ratified it on 27 July. In May 2021, Lithuania became the third current associated member. As
1395-510: A huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages— ciao is derived from the Venetian word s-cia[v]o ("slave", that is "your servant"), panettone comes from the Lombard word panetton , etc. Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when
1550-471: A little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home. Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country. In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language when varieties of Chinese are not grouped together, with 375,645 claiming Italian as their mother tongue in 2016. Italian immigrants to South America have also brought a presence of
1705-736: A major spaceport , the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou ( French Guiana ), France. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 6 will be operated through Arianespace with the ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle. The agency is also working with NASA to manufacture the Orion spacecraft service module that flies on the Space Launch System . After World War II , many European scientists left Western Europe in order to work with
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#17327722538851860-658: A poetic and literary origin in the works of Tuscan writers of the 12th century, and, although the grammar and core lexicon are basically unchanged from those used in Florence in the 13th century, the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. However, Romance vernacular as language spoken in the Italian Peninsula has a longer history. In fact, the earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called vernacular (as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as
2015-819: A policy of "georeturn", where funds that ESA member states provide to the ESA "are returned in the form of contracts to companies in those countries." By 2015, the ESA was an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states. The 2008 ESA budget amounted to €3.0 billion whilst the 2009 budget amounted to €3.6 billion. The total budget amounted to about €3.7 billion in 2010, €3.99 billion in 2011, €4.02 billion in 2012, €4.28 billion in 2013, €4.10 billion in 2014, €4.43 billion in 2015, €5.25 billion in 2016, €5.75 billion in 2017, €5.60 billion in 2018, €5.72 billion in 2019, €6,68 billion in 2020, €6.49 billion in 2021, €7.15 billion in 2022, €7.46 billion in 2023 and €7.79 billion in 2024. English and French are
2170-484: A provision ensuring a fair industrial return to Canada. The most recent Cooperation Agreement was signed on 15 December 2010 with a term extending to 2020. For 2014, Canada's annual assessed contribution to the ESA general budget was €6,059,449 ( CAD$ 8,559,050). For 2017, Canada has increased its annual contribution to €21,600,000 ( CAD$ 30,000,000). The ESA is funded from annual contributions by national governments of members as well as from an annual contribution by
2325-417: A renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century, sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. This discussion, known as questione della lingua (i.e., the problem of the language ), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving
2480-522: A result. Starting in late medieval times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by languages of Italy, especially Tuscan and Venetian. These varieties were consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italy and the rise of humanism and the arts . Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of
2635-470: A seven-vowel system, consisting of /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/ , as well as 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged from Vulgar Latin . Some examples: European Space Agency The European Space Agency ( ESA ) is a 22-member intergovernmental body devoted to space exploration . With its headquarters in Paris and
2790-479: A single language is that they have evolved so that they are no longer mutually intelligible ; this diagnostic is effective if mutual intelligibility is minimal or absent (e.g. in Romance, Romanian and Portuguese), but it fails in cases such as Spanish-Portuguese or Spanish-Italian, as educated native speakers of either pairing can understand each other well if they choose to do so; however, the level of intelligibility
2945-483: A single low cost LOX/Liquid methane stage with a new guidance system . The purpose of the program was to upgrade the performance by about 30% without significant price increase. On 14 February 2012, one day after the successful first launch of Vega, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) moved to be included in the program. Johann-Dietrich Wörner, at that time head of DLR , said Germany wanted to join
3100-601: A staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, the ESA was founded in 1975. Its 2024 annual budget was €7.8 billion. The ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); the launch and operation of crewless exploration missions to other planets (such as Mars ) and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles ; and maintaining
3255-738: A star-mapping mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO , Ulysses and the Hubble Space Telescope were all jointly carried out with NASA. Later scientific missions in cooperation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, to which the ESA contributed by building the Titan landing module Huygens . As the successor of ELDO , the ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1 , launched in 1979, carried mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward. The next two versions of
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#17327722538853410-513: A united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions: A fourth faction claimed that the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mixture of the Tuscan and Roman dialects. Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to
3565-715: A while already and which gives effect to these. Thanks Jan for your hand of friendship and making this possible." The ESA currently has two operational launch vehicles Vega-C and Ariane 6 . Rocket launches are carried out by Arianespace , which has 23 shareholders representing the industry that manufactures the Ariane 5 as well as CNES , at the ESA's Guiana Space Centre . Because many communication satellites have equatorial orbits, launches from French Guiana are able to take larger payloads into space than from spaceports at higher latitudes . In addition, equatorial launches give spacecraft an extra 'push' of nearly 500 m/s due to
3720-427: Is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan , 85% with Sardinian , 82% with Spanish, 80% with Portuguese , 78% with Ladin , 77% with Romanian . Estimates may differ according to sources. One study, analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin (comparing phonology , inflection , discourse , syntax , vocabulary , and intonation ), estimated that distance between Italian and Latin
3875-759: Is also spoken by a minority in Monaco and France, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Italian was the official language in Savoy and in Nice until 1860, when they were both annexed by France under the Treaty of Turin , a development that triggered the " Niçard exodus ", or the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy, and the Niçard Vespers . Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about
4030-690: Is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania , although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties ) and
4185-461: Is at an advanced stage" with these nations and that "prospects for mutual benefits are existing". A separate space exploration strategy resolution calls for further co-operation with the United States, Russia and China on " LEO exploration, including a continuation of ISS cooperation and the development of a robust plan for the coordinated use of space transportation vehicles and systems for exploration purposes, participation in robotic missions for
4340-576: Is capable of carrying a payload with a mass of between 300 and 1500 kg to an altitude of 700 km, for low polar orbit . Its maiden launch from Kourou was on 13 February 2012. Vega began full commercial exploitation in December 2015. The rocket has three solid propulsion stages and a liquid propulsion upper stage (the AVUM ) for accurate orbital insertion and the ability to place multiple payloads into different orbits. A larger version of
4495-534: Is higher than that between Sardinian and Latin. In particular, its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian . As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is the third most spoken language in Switzerland (after German and French; see Swiss Italian ), although its use there has moderately declined since
4650-460: Is markedly lower between Italian-Spanish, and considerably higher between the Iberian sister languages of Portuguese-Spanish. Speakers of this latter pair can communicate with one another with remarkable ease, each speaking to the other in his own native language without slang/jargon. Nevertheless, on the basis of accumulated differences in morphology, syntax, phonology, and to some extent lexicon, it
4805-462: Is not difficult to identify that for the Romance varieties of Italy, the first extant written evidence of languages that can no longer be considered Latin comes from the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy. Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around
Vega (rocket) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4960-594: Is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom ) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million. Italian is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as
5115-549: Is used, and the town of Chipilo near Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form of Venetian dating back to the 19th century. Other examples are Cocoliche , an Italian–Spanish pidgin once spoken in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires , and Lunfardo . The Rioplatense Spanish dialect of Argentina and Uruguay today has thus been heavily influenced by both standard Italian and Italian regional languages as
5270-509: The Il Globo (Australia) and the La gazzetta del Sud Africa (South Africa). Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. In the 21st century, technology also allows for the continual spread of the Italian language, as people have new ways to learn how to speak, read, and write languages at their own pace and at any given time. For example,
5425-991: The La Voce del Popolo ( Croatia ), the Corriere d'Italia (Germany), the L'italoeuropeo (United Kingdom), the Passaparola ( Luxembourg ), the America Oggi (United States), the Corriere Canadese and the Corriere Italiano (Canada), the Il punto d'incontro (Mexico), the L'Italia del Popolo ( Argentina ), the Fanfulla (Brazil), the Gente d'Italia ( Uruguay ), the La Voce d'Italia ( Venezuela ),
5580-651: The Ariane 6 , is under development and had a successful long-firing engine test in November 2023. The ESA plans for the Ariane 6 to launch in June or July 2024. The beginning of the new millennium saw the ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA , ISRO , the CSA and Roscosmos , one of the major participants in scientific space research . Although the ESA had relied on co-operation with NASA in previous decades, especially
5735-462: The European Union (EU). The budget of the ESA was €5.250 billion in 2016. Every 3–4 years, ESA member states agree on a budget plan for several years at an ESA member states conference. This plan can be amended in future years, however provides the major guideline for the ESA for several years. The 2016 budget allocations for major areas of the ESA activity are shown in the chart on
5890-702: The Gallo-Italic linguistic panorama of Northern Italy , the Italo-Dalmatian , Neapolitan and its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco- Occitan influences introduced to Italy mainly by bards from France during the Middle Ages, but after the Norman conquest of southern Italy , Sicily became the first Italian land to adopt Occitan lyric moods (and words) in poetry. Even in
6045-473: The ISS partnership. The ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot , launched on 27 December 2006, a milestone in the search for exoplanets . On 21 January 2019, ArianeGroup and Arianespace announced a one-year contract with the ESA to study and prepare for a mission to mine the Moon for lunar regolith . In 2021 the ESA ministerial council agreed to
6200-674: The Kingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese ). Italian is widely spoken in Malta , where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (see Maltese Italian ). Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition. Italian language in Slovenia is an officially recognized minority language in
6355-773: The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia ), although the masses kept speaking primarily their local vernaculars. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of as city-states . Those dialects now have considerable variety . As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian . The most characteristic differences, for instance, between Roman Italian and Milanese Italian are syntactic gemination of initial consonants in some contexts and
Vega (rocket) - Misplaced Pages Continue
6510-653: The LARES 2 and six other satellites to orbit. This launch came as a way of filling the gap after the Russian rockets became unavailable due to the invasion of Ukraine . On 21 December 2022 (UTC), Vega-C suffered a launch failure due to an anomaly with the Zefiro 40 second stage resulting in the loss of two spacecraft for the Airbus Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging constellation . Following the failure,
6665-1033: The Middle Ages , the established written language in Europe was Latin, although the great majority of people were illiterate, and only few were well versed in the language. In the Italian Peninsula , as in most of Europe, most would instead speak a local vernacular. These dialects, as they are commonly referred to, evolved from Vulgar Latin over the course of centuries, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. They are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, but sister languages of Italian. Mutual intelligibility with Italian varies widely, as it does with Romance languages in general. The Romance languages of Italy can differ greatly from Italian at all levels ( phonology , morphology , syntax , lexicon , pragmatics ) and are classified typologically as distinct languages. The standard Italian language has
6820-554: The Placiti Cassinesi from the province of Benevento that date from 960 to 963, although the Veronese Riddle , probably from the 8th or early 9th century, contains a late form of Vulgar Latin that can be seen as a very early sample of a vernacular dialect of Italy. The Commodilla catacomb inscription is also a similar case. The Italian language has progressed through a long and slow process, which started after
6975-645: The Swiss made ones. The revised Vega-C first stage, renamed P120C (Common), has been selected as booster for the first stage of the next generation Ariane 6 rocket at European Space Agency (ESA) Council meeting at Ministerial level in December 2014. Avio was also considering a "Vega Light" that would omit the first stage of either the Vega-C or Vega-E and would be targeted at replenishing satellite constellations. The vehicle would be capable of launching between 250–300 kg or 400–500 kg depending on whether it
7130-528: The Western Roman Empire's fall in the 5th century. The language that came to be thought of as Italian developed in central Tuscany and was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri , written in his native Florentine . Dante's epic poems, known collectively as the Commedia , to which another Tuscan poet Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed
7285-452: The " Matosinhos manifesto" which set three priority areas (referred to as accelerators ) "space for a green future, a rapid and resilient crisis response, and the protection of space assets", and two further high visibility projects (referred to as inspirators ) an icy moon sample return mission; and human space exploration. In the same year the recruitment process began for the 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group . 1 July 2023 saw
7440-532: The 111 Italian lecturer sections belonging to foreign schools where Italian is taught as a language of culture. As of 2022, Australia had the highest number of students learning Italian in the world. This occurred because of support by the Italian community in Australia and the Italian Government and also because of successful educational reform efforts led by local governments in Australia. From
7595-510: The 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry. Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had probably diverged long before the first written records appeared since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of Standard Italian became increasingly widespread and
7750-438: The 1970s. It is official both on the national level and on regional level in two cantons : Ticino and Grisons . In the latter canton, however, it is only spoken by a small minority, in the Italian Grisons . Ticino, which includes Lugano , the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, is the only canton where Italian is predominant. Italian is also used in administration and official documents in Vatican City . Italian
7905-434: The 1990s, changed circumstances (such as tough legal restrictions on information sharing by the United States military ) led to decisions to rely more on itself and on co-operation with Russia. A 2011 press issue thus stated: Russia is ESA's first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. There is a framework agreement between ESA and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation and partnership in
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#17327722538858060-486: The Ariane rocket were intermediate stages in the development of a more advanced launch system, the Ariane 4 , which operated between 1988 and 2003 and established the ESA as the world leader in commercial space launches in the 1990s. Although the succeeding Ariane 5 experienced a failure on its first flight, it has since firmly established itself within the heavily competitive commercial space launch market with 112 successful launches until 2021. The successor launch vehicle,
8215-511: The ESA as full members. Since October 2022 there have been five associate members: Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Canada. The four European members have shown interest in full membership and may eventually apply within the next years. Since 2016, Slovenia has been an associated member of the ESA. In November 2023 Slovenia formally applied for full membership. In June 2024 Prime Minister Robert Golob and Director General Josef Aschbacher have signed an agreement that will see Slovenia become
8370-427: The ESA is an international organization, unaffiliated with any single nation, any form of legal action is difficult to raise against the organization. Member states participate to varying degrees with both mandatory space programs and those that are optional. As of 2008 , the mandatory programmes made up 25% of total expenditures while optional space programmes were the other 75%. The ESA has traditionally implemented
8525-400: The ESA is not the only European governmental space organisation (for example European Union Satellite Centre and the European Union Space Programme Agency ). After the decision of the ESA Council of 21/22 March 2001, the procedure for accession of the European states was detailed as described the document titled "The Plan for European Co-operating States (PECS)". Nations that want to become
8680-457: The ESA's documents, the staff can receive myriad of perks, such as financial childcare support, retirement plans, and financial help when migrating. The ESA also prevents employees from disclosing any private documents or correspondences to outside parties. Ars Technica ' s 2023 report, which contained testimonies of 18 people, suggested that there is a widespread harassment between management and its employees, especially with its contractors. Since
8835-453: The European Space Agency reads: The purpose of the Agency shall be to provide for and to promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European States in space research and technology and their space applications, with a view to their being used for scientific purposes and for operational space applications systems… The ESA is responsible for setting a unified space and related industrial policy, recommending space objectives to
8990-399: The Flight Control Software, due to the restrictions on French export control imposed on the software used on the first flight. Since entering commercial service, Arianespace markets Vega as a launch system tailored for missions to polar and Sun-synchronous orbits. During its qualification flight, Vega placed its main payload of 386.8 kg, the LARES satellite, into a circular orbit at
9145-414: The French space agency; Italy provided 65% of funding while six additional nations contributed the remainder. In May 2004, it was reported that a contract was signed between commercial operator Arianespace and prime contractor ELV to perform vehicle integration at Kourou , French Guiana . In November 2004, construction commenced upon a new dedicated launch pad for the Vega launcher at Kourou, this included
9300-417: The Italian dialects has declined in the modern era , as Italy unified under Standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television, diglossia is still frequently encountered in Italy and triglossia is not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree of code-switching and code-mixing . Notes: Italian has
9455-439: The Italian language into a lingua franca used not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts but also by the bourgeoisie . Italian literature's first modern novel, I promessi sposi ( The Betrothed ) by Alessandro Manzoni , further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the Arno " ( Florence 's river), as he states in the preface to his 1840 edition. After unification,
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#17327722538859610-497: The Mediterranean. The increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of the Medici Bank , humanism , and the Renaissance made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts. The Renaissance era, known as il Rinascimento in Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of both renaissance (from French) and rinascimento (Italian). During this time, long-existing beliefs stemming from
9765-416: The Netherlands , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , and the United Kingdom . These signed the ESA Convention in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, when the convention came into force. During this interval the agency functioned in a de facto fashion. The ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B , a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emissions in the universe, which
9920-617: The P80 stage, the P120C , will also be used as the side boosters of the Ariane 6 . Italy was the leading contributor to the Vega program (65%), followed by France (13%). Other participants include Spain , Belgium , the Netherlands , Switzerland and Sweden . Vega struggled to compete in the commercial launch market in its decade of service. After initial success, two in-flight failures and rising competition SpaceX 's rideshare programs , which offered lower prices, relegated Vega to primarily serving European government agencies willing to pay more to support independent space access. During
10075-521: The Plan for European Cooperating States Charter on 4 February 2016, a scheme introduced at ESA in 2001. The ECS Agreement was subsequently extended until 3 August 2022. Since 1 January 1979, Canada has had the special status of a Cooperating State within the ESA. By virtue of this accord, the Canadian Space Agency takes part in the ESA's deliberative bodies and decision-making and also in the ESA's programmes and activities. Canadian firms can bid for and receive contracts to work on programmes. The accord has
10230-415: The Russian Soyuz launcher would directly compete with the in-development Vega; demands for such launchers had declined with a downturn in the mobile telecommunications satellite market and doubts over the European Galileo satellite navigation system. In March 2003, contracts for development of the Vega launcher were signed by European Space Agency (ESA) and Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES),
10385-407: The United States. Although the 1950s boom made it possible for Western European countries to invest in research and specifically in space-related activities, Western European scientists realised solely national projects would not be able to compete with the two main superpowers. In 1958, only months after the Sputnik shock , Edoardo Amaldi (Italy) and Pierre Auger (France), two prominent members of
10540-419: The Vega and Ariane. At the 2009 Paris Air Show , it was revealed that the adoption of more cost-effective engine to replace the upper stages of the Vega have been postponed due to a failure to reduce the overall costs of the launcher, making it much less worthwhile to pursue. Despite this finding, efforts to improve the efficiency of the third stage continued. At this point, the certification of all four stages of
10695-407: The Vega launch was anticipated to be achieved prior to the end of 2009, while the first launch was scheduled to take place during 2010. The first flight was intended to be flown with a scientific payload, rather than a "dummy" placeholder; but had intentionally avoided a costly commercial satellite. By late 2010, the first flight had been delayed into 2011. During October 2011, all major components of
10850-503: The Vega launcher, Vega-C had its first flight in July 2022. The new evolution of the rocket incorporates a larger first stage booster, the P120C replacing the P80 , an upgraded Zefiro (rocket stage) second stage, and the AVUM+ upper stage. This new variant enables larger single payloads, dual payloads, return missions, and orbital transfer capabilities. Historically, the Ariane family rockets have been funded primarily "with money contributed by ESA governments seeking to participate in
11005-426: The Vega launcher; this envisioned module would transfer payloads between low Earth orbit (LEO) and a geostationary orbit (GEO). During November 2005, it was reported that both Israel and India had shown formal interest in the Vega programme. In December 2005, the Vega launcher, along with the Ariane and Soyuz launchers, were endorsed as the recognised "first choice" platforms for ESA payloads. On 19 December 2005,
11160-620: The Vega stack. The first stage P80 motor will be replaced with the P120C , the same booster due to be used on the Ariane 6 launcher, and the Zefiro 23 second stage will also be replaced with the Zefiro 40. The larger AVUM+ will replace the AVUM fourth stage, while the third Zefiro 9 stage will be carried over from the base version of the launcher. These modifications will enable new mission parameters using various payload adapters and upper stages. The new rocket will be able to carry dual payloads using
11315-468: The Vega was proposed, but this failed to sufficiently satisfy France. In September 1999, France decided to withdraw from the Vega programme entirely, leading to fears for the future of the launcher. In November 1999, European Space Agency (ESA) formally dropped Vega as an endorsed programme, a decision which was largely attributed to France's withdrawal; Italy declared that it would proceed regardless, and threatened to re-direct its allocated contributions for
11470-685: The Vespa-C payload adapter, or a single large satellite in addition to smaller payloads using the Vampire and SMSS multiple payload dispenser. Orbital transfer capability was also available with the Vega Electrical Nudge Upper Stage, or VENUS. Return missions are also available using the reusable Space Rider vehicle, currently in development by ESA and due to launch on a Vega-C no earlier than July 2025. On 13 July 2022, Vega-C had its debut flight, during which it delivered
11625-609: The Western European scientific community, met to discuss the foundation of a common Western European space agency. The meeting was attended by scientific representatives from eight countries. The Western European nations decided to have two agencies: one concerned with developing a launch system, ELDO (European Launcher Development Organisation), and the other the precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation). The latter
11780-445: The Zefiro motor was initiated by Avio , partially funded by the company and partially funded by a contract from the Italian Space Agency (ISA). A Zefiro 23 forms the second stage of Vega. Its carbon-epoxy case was filament-wound and its carbon phenolic nozzle includes a carbon-carbon throat insert. The propellant loading was 23 tons. The Zefiro 23 second stage engine was first fired on 26 June 2006 at Salto di Quirra . This test
11935-490: The ability to deliver multiple satellites into different orbits on a single launch. As of March 2021 Avio was finalizing the development of the new M10 methane engine used in the new upper stage. The engine design was the result of a collaboration between Avio and Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (KBKhA) ended in 2014. Avio successfully conducted the first series of testing of the M10 engine between May and July 2022 with
12090-441: The altitude of 1450 km with an inclination of 69.5°. Arianespace had indicated that the Vega launcher was able to carry 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) to a circular polar orbit at an altitude of 700 km (430 mi). The payload fairing of the Vega was designed and was manufactured by RUAG Space of Switzerland. It has a diameter of 2.6 metres, a height of 7.8 metres and a mass of 400 kg. The cylindrical part of
12245-431: The avionics sub-system of the vehicle. There was a concept study for a new medium-size launcher based on Vega and Ariane 5 elements. This launcher would use an Ariane 5 P230 first stage, a Vega P80 second stage and an Ariane 5 third stage using either storable or cryogenic fuel. The future upgraded Vega ( LYRA program ) has exceeded the feasibility study and was planned to replace the current third and fourth stages with
12400-444: The case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages. The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time ( Late Middle Ages ) gave its language weight, although Venetian remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, and Ligurian (or Genoese) remained in use in maritime trade alongside
12555-653: The colonial period. In the early 19th century, Eritrea was the country with the highest number of Italians abroad, and the Italian Eritreans grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II. In Asmara there are two Italian schools, the Italian School of Asmara (Italian primary school with a Montessori department) and the Liceo Sperimentale "G. Marconi" (Italian international senior high school). Italian
12710-490: The cooperation were laid out in a framework agreement signed by the two entities. On 17 November 2020, ESA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). SANSA CEO Dr. Valanathan Munsami tweeted: "Today saw another landmark event for SANSA with the signing of an MoU with the ESA. This builds on initiatives that we have been discussing for
12865-573: The country (some 0.42% of the total population). Their numbers dropped dramatically after World War II following the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus , which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians. Italian was the official language of the Republic of Ragusa from 1492 to 1807. It formerly had official status in Albania due to the annexation of
13020-573: The country eligible for participation in ESA procurements. The country can also participate in all ESA programmes, except for the Basic Technology Research Programme. While the financial contribution of the country concerned increases, it is still much lower than that of a full member state. The agreement is normally followed by a Plan For European Cooperating State (or PECS Charter). This is a 5-year programme of basic research and development activities aimed at improving
13175-518: The country to the Kingdom of Italy (1939–1943). Albania has a large population of non-native speakers, with over half of the population having some knowledge of the Italian language. The Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools. The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania, due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to
13330-446: The country. A few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s. Italian was the official language of Eritrea during Italian colonisation . Italian is today used in commerce, and it is still spoken especially among elders; besides that, Italian words are incorporated as loan words in the main language spoken in the country (Tigrinya). The capital city of Eritrea, Asmara , still has several Italian schools, established during
13485-579: The country. The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians ( Istrian Italians ) in Slovenia (0.11% of the total population). Italian language in Croatia is an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. The 2001 census in Croatia reported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ) in
13640-464: The design and fashion industries, in some sports such as football and especially in culinary terms. In Italy, almost all the other languages spoken as the vernacular —other than standard Italian and some languages spoken among immigrant communities—are often called " Italian dialects ", a label that can be very misleading if it is understood to mean "dialects of Italian". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date
13795-588: The diffusion of Italian television in the country. Due to heavy Italian influence during the Italian colonial period , Italian is still understood by some in former colonies such as Libya. Although it was the primary language in Libya since colonial rule , Italian greatly declined under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi , who expelled the Italian Libyan population and made Arabic the sole official language of
13950-478: The educated gentlemen was to make the Grand Tour , visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It was expected that the visitor would learn at least some Italian, understood as language based on Florentine. In England, while the classical languages Latin and Greek were the first to be learned, Italian became the second most common modern language after French, a position it held until
14105-462: The establishment of Italian, and as such are sister languages to the Tuscan that was the historical source of Italian. They can be quite different from Italian and from each other, with some belonging to different linguistic branches of Romance. The only exceptions to this are twelve groups considered " historical language minorities ", which are officially recognized as distinct minority languages by
14260-466: The exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and cooperation is already underway in two different areas of launcher activity that will bring benefits to both partners. Notable ESA programmes include SMART-1 , a probe testing cutting-edge space propulsion technology, the Mars Express and Venus Express missions, as well as the development of the Ariane 5 rocket and its role in
14415-582: The exploration of the Moon, the robotic exploration of Mars, leading to a broad Mars Sample Return mission in which Europe should be involved as a full partner, and human missions beyond LEO in the longer term." In August 2019, the ESA and the Australian Space Agency signed a joint statement of intent "to explore deeper cooperation and identify projects in a range of areas including deep space, communications, navigation, remote asset management, data analytics and mission support." Details of
14570-433: The fact that it was linguistically an intermediate between the northern and the southern Italian dialects. Thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy. Italian was progressively made an official language of most of the Italian states predating unification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as Spain in the Kingdom of Naples , or Austria in
14725-419: The fairing has an outer diameter 2.6 m and a height 3.5 m. The first three stages are solid propellant engines produced by Avio , that was the prime contractor for the Vega launcher through its company ELV. As of 2011, the design and production process of the three engine types intended for the three stages of Vega were planned to be verified in two ground-test firings — one for design evaluation and one in
14880-485: The final flight configuration. The P80 was the first stage of VEGA, its name was derived from the design phase propellant weight of 80 tons that was later increased to 88 tons. The P80 includes a thrust vector control (TVC) system, developed and made in Belgium by SABCA , consisting of two electromechanical actuators that operate a movable nozzle with flexible joint using lithium-ion batteries. The 3 m diameter case
15035-407: The financing towards the all-composite P80 booster for the Ariane 5 — work which would be included in the Vega programme. In March 2001, FiatAvio and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) formed a new company, European Launch Vehicle (ELV), to assume responsibility for the majority of development work on the Vega programme. By 2003, there was concerns that European Space Agency (ESA)'s recent adoption of
15190-445: The first Vega rocket departed Avio's Colleferro facility, near Rome , by sea for Kourou. At this point, the first launch was anticipated to occur during December 2011 or January 2012. During early January 2012, it was reported that the launch date would slip into the following month. On 13 February 2012, the first launch of the Vega rocket occurred for Kourou; it was reported as being an "apparently perfect flight". During mid-2011, it
15345-512: The first launch took place from the Guiana Space Centre on 13 February 2012. It was the 8th most launched small lift launch vehicle in history. The final flight of the rocket took place on 5 September 2024, after being replaced by the improved Vega C , already in use since 2022. It was designed to launch small payloads, 300 to 2,500 kilograms (660 to 5,510 lb) satellites for scientific and Earth observation missions to polar and low Earth orbits. The reference Vega mission
15500-532: The first phase of the development programme for Vega; the participating members were France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy – the latter had assumed 55% of the burden for financing the programme. By September 1998, it was projected that, if fully funded, Vega would perform its first launch during 2002. However, by early 1998, France was publicly showing displeasure in the programme, leading to disputes in its funding. A new, higher-performance version of
15655-516: The first test firing of the Vega's third stage was completed successfully at Salto di Quirra , Sardinia . For several years, further tests would be conducted at the Sardinia site. Progress on Vega was delayed by the failure of one such test of the third stage on 28 March 2007. During January 2007, European Space Agency (ESA) announced that the agency was studying the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation in order to support launches of
15810-403: The following programmes, becoming 'Participating States', listed according to: As of 2023, Many other facilities are operated by national space agencies in close collaboration with the ESA. The ESA employs around 2,547 people, and thousands of contractors. Initially, new employees are contracted for an expandable four-year term, which is until the organization's retirement age of 63. According to
15965-476: The free website and application Duolingo has 4.94 million English speakers learning the Italian language. According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90 Institutes of Italian Culture that are located around the world, in the 179 Italian schools located abroad, or in
16120-428: The further development of the Ariane 5 to meet the shortfall. Around 2000, an alternative use for the Vega was explored as a medium-class booster rocket to be used in conjunction with an improved, up-rated model of the Ariane 5 heavy launcher. In October 2000, it was announced that France and Italy had settled their year-long dispute over the Vega programme; France and Italy agreed to provide 35% and 52%, respectively, of
16275-416: The future. The ESA describes its work in two overlapping ways: These are either mandatory or optional. According to the ESA website, the activities are: Every member country (known as 'Member States') must contribute to these programmes: The European Space Agency Science Programme is a long-term programme of space science missions. Depending on their individual choices the countries can contribute to
16430-491: The higher rotational velocity of the Earth at the equator compared to near the Earth's poles where rotational velocity approaches zero. Ariane 6 is a heavy lift expendable launch vehicle developed by Arianespace . The Ariane 6 entered into its inaugural flight campaign on 26 April 2024 with the flight conducted on 9 July 2024. Vega is the ESA's carrier for small satellites. Developed by seven ESA members led by Italy . It
16585-489: The island of Corsica (but not in the neighbouring Sardinia , which on the contrary underwent Italianization well into the late 18th century, under Savoyard sway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among the Sardinians , would therein make for a rather slow process of assimilation to the Italian cultural sphere ). The rediscovery of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia , as well as
16740-640: The language to that continent. According to some sources, Italian is the second most spoken language in Argentina after the official language of Spanish, although its number of speakers, mainly of the older generation, is decreasing. Italian bilingual speakers can be found scattered across the Southeast of Brazil as well as in the South. In Venezuela , Italian is the most spoken language after Spanish and Portuguese, with around 200,000 speakers. In Uruguay , people who speak Italian as their home language are 1.1% of
16895-498: The late 18th century when it tended to be replaced by German. John Milton , for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian. Within the Catholic Church , Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents. Italian loanwords continue to be used in most languages in matters of art and music (especially classical music including opera), in
17050-534: The late 19th to the mid-20th century, millions of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and Venezuela, as well as in Canada and the United States, where they formed a physical and cultural presence. In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regional languages of Italy were used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples are Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil, where Talian
17205-567: The launch of the Euclid spacecraft , developed jointly with the Euclid Consortium, after 10 years of planning and building it is designed to better understand dark energy and dark matter by accurately measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe . The agency's facilities date back to ESRO and are deliberately distributed among various countries and areas. The most important are the following centres: The treaty establishing
17360-567: The law. On the other hand, Corsican (a language spoken on the French island of Corsica ) is closely related to medieval Tuscan , from which Standard Italian derives and evolved. The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the natural changes that all languages in regular use are subject to, and to some extent to the presence of three other types of languages: substrata, superstrata, and adstrata . The most prevalent were substrata (the language of
17515-485: The maiden flight of the Vega-E planned for 2027. Development costs for the Vega rocket totaled €710 million, with ESA spending an additional €400 million to sponsor five development flights between 2012 and 2014. Estimates of commercial launch costs in 2012 were projected to be €32 million, including Arianespace's marketing and service costs, or €25 million for each rocket alone, assuming a launch rate of 2 per year. In 2012,
17670-488: The managing director of ELV estimated that if the sustained flight rate were to increase to four flights per year, the price of each individual launch vehicle could potentially decrease to €22 million. In the event, by November 2020, Vega had never flown more than three flights in a single year, with an average flight rate of just under two launches per year. "Our belief was that we can charge up to 20% more per launch than our biggest competitors and still win business because of
17825-553: The member states, and integrating national programs like satellite development, into the European program as much as possible. Jean-Jacques Dordain – ESA's Director General (2003–2015) – outlined the European Space Agency's mission in a 2003 interview: Today space activities have pursued the benefit of citizens, and citizens are asking for a better quality of life on Earth. They want greater security and economic wealth, but they also want to pursue their dreams, to increase their knowledge, and they want younger people to be attracted to
17980-459: The mid-1990s, French firms Aérospatiale and SEP, along with Italian firm Bombrini-Parodi-Delfino (BPD), commenced discussions on the development of a proposed Ariane Complementary Launcher (ACL). Around the same time, Italy began to champion the concept of a new solid-propellant satellite launcher. This proposed launcher, dubbed Vega , was promoted as functioning to expand the range of European launch capabilities; Vega would be capable of launching
18135-566: The most conservative Romance languages). Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian is an official language in Italy , San Marino , Switzerland ( Ticino and the Grisons ), Corsica , and Vatican City . It has official minority status in Croatia , Slovenian Istria , and the municipalities of Santa Tereza and Encantado in Brazil . Italian
18290-512: The motor's design. On 23 October 2008, an enhanced version of the Zefiro 9 with a modified nozzle design, the Zefiro 9-A, was successfully tested. On 28 April 2009, the final qualification test firing of Zefiro 9-A took place at the Salto di Quirra Interforce Test Range in Sardinia , Italy . The Attitude Vernier Upper Module (AVUM) upper stage , developed by Avio , has been designed to place
18445-412: The nation was unified in 1861. Italian is a Romance language , a descendant of Vulgar Latin (colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on Tuscan , especially its Florentine dialect , and is, therefore, an Italo-Dalmatian language , a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct Dalmatian . According to Ethnologue , lexical similarity
18600-634: The nation's space industry capacity. At the end of the 5-year period, the country can either begin negotiations to become a full member state or an associated state or sign a new PECS Charter. Many countries, most of which joined the EU in both 2004 and 2007, have started to co-operate with the ESA on various levels: During the Ministerial Meeting in December 2014, ESA ministers approved a resolution calling for discussions to begin with Israel, Australia and South Africa on future association agreements. The ministers noted that "concrete cooperation
18755-545: The next launch was delayed until late 2024 to allow the redesign of a rocket motor nozzle. The Vega E (or Vega Evolution) is a further evolution of the Vega-C. The first stage P120C motor will be replaced with the P160C, the same booster due to be used on the Ariane 6 Block 2 launcher. The Zefiro 9 and AVUM+ third and fourth stages will be replaced with a cryogenic upper stage powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane . This variant offers even more flexibility than Vega-C, with
18910-408: The number of printing presses in Italy grew rapidly and by the year 1500 reached a total of 56, the biggest number of printing presses in all of Europe. This enabled the production of more pieces of literature at a lower cost and Italian, as the dominant language, spread. Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the Italian Peninsula , as well as the prestige variety used on
19065-590: The official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta . Italian has a significant use in musical terminology and opera with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide. Almost all native Italian words end with vowels , and the language has a 7-vowel sound system ('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds). Italian has contrast between short and long consonants and gemination (doubling) of consonants. During
19220-630: The openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations andà , annà and nare replace the standard Italian andare in the area of Tuscany, Rome and Venice respectively for the infinitive "to go"). There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern Standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. One criterion for determining that two language variants are to be considered separate languages rather than variants of
19375-584: The original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most probably simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either. Throughout Italy, regional varieties of Standard Italian, called Regional Italian , are spoken. Regional differences can be recognized by various factors:
19530-458: The other hand, almost everyone still speaks the Corsican idiom , which, due to its linguistic proximity to the Italian standard language, appears both linguistically as an Italian dialect and therefore as a carrier of Italian culture, despite the French government's decades-long efforts to cut Corsica off from the Italian motherland. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it
19685-405: The payload in the required orbit and to perform roll and attitude control functions. The AVUM consists of two modules: AVUM Propulsion Module (APM) and AVUM Avionics Module (AAM). The propulsion module uses a Ukrainian-built RD-843 (RD-868P) rocket engine liquid-fuel rocket burning pressure-fed UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide as propellants. The AVUM avionics module contains the main components of
19840-406: The population of Italy could speak Standard Italian. He reports that in 1951 that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after World War II , contributed to
19995-527: The project. Germany would provide a replacement for the RD-843 engine on the AVUM fourth stage, currently made in Ukraine . The Vega launcher manager stated that it will not fly in the near future because it takes some time to develop, but he confirmed it will be on agenda in the next meeting of ministers in late 2012. That way, all components of the rocket would be built inside the European Union (EU), excluding
20150-469: The proliferation of Standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the Italian diaspora beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of Standard Italian, back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left. Although use of
20305-528: The pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" between vowels in many words: e.g. va bene "all right" is pronounced [vabˈbɛːne] by a Roman (and by any standard Italian speaker), [vaˈbeːne] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line ); a casa "at home" is [akˈkaːsa] for Roman, [akˈkaːsa] or [akˈkaːza] for standard, [aˈkaːza] for Milanese and generally northern. In contrast to
20460-415: The publication of Agnolo Monosini 's Latin tome Floris italicae linguae libri novem in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612. An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon in the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy some decades after and pushed
20615-402: The pursuit of science and technology. I think that space can do all of this: it can produce a higher quality of life, better security, more economic wealth, and also fulfill our citizens' dreams and thirst for knowledge, and attract the young generation. This is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be even more important in
20770-487: The referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among the Italian Savoyards ) took refuge in Italy in the following years. Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1769 after the Treaty of Versailles . Italian was the official language of Corsica until 1859. Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the " Corsican Italians " within Italy when Rome
20925-426: The right. Countries typically have their own space programmes that differ in how they operate organisationally and financially with the ESA. For example, the French space agency CNES has a total budget of €2,015 million, of which €755 million is paid as direct financial contribution to the ESA. Several space-related projects are joint projects between national space agencies and the ESA (e.g. COROT ). Also,
21080-473: The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church began to be understood from new perspectives as humanists —individuals who placed emphasis on the human body and its full potential—began to shift focus from the church to human beings themselves. The continual advancements in technology play a crucial role in the diffusion of languages. After the invention of the printing press in the 15th century,
21235-540: The test was concluded successfully. The second test firing of the P80 first stage engine took place on 4 December 2007 in Kourou. Delivering a mean thrust of 190 tonnes over 111 seconds, the engine's behaviour was in line with predictions. The future version of the stage, P120C , also with its name derived from the design phase propellant weight of 120 tons, will increase the propellant mass to 141–143 tons. The development of
21390-469: The title Divina , were read throughout the peninsula and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, the Florentine dialect also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and
21545-542: The total population of the country. In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language. The main Italian-language newspapers published outside Italy are the L'Osservatore Romano ( Vatican City ), the L'Informazione di San Marino ( San Marino ), the Corriere del Ticino and the laRegione Ticino ( Switzerland ),
21700-624: The two official languages of the ESA. Additionally, official documents are also provided in German and documents regarding the Spacelab have been also provided in Italian. If found appropriate, the agency may conduct its correspondence in any language of a member state. The following table lists all the member states and adjunct members, their ESA convention ratification dates, and their contributions as of 2024: Previously associated members were Austria, Norway and Finland, all of which later joined
21855-670: The value we provide at the space center here and with Arianespace" Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . Italian is the least divergent language from Latin , together with Sardinian (meaning that Italian and Sardinian are
22010-420: Was a complete success. After a critical design review based on the completed first test firings, the second test-firing of the Zefiro 9 took place at Salto di Quirra on 28 March 2007. After 35 seconds, there was a sudden drop in the motor's internal pressure, leading to an increased combustion time. No public information was available for this sudden drop of internal pressure, and whether any flaws were present in
22165-493: Was a polar orbit bringing a spacecraft of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) to an altitude of 700 kilometres (430 mi). The rocket, named after Vega , the brightest star in the constellation Lyra , was a single-body launcher (no strap-on boosters) with three solid rocket stages: the P80 first stage, the Zefiro 23 second stage, and the Zefiro 9 third stage. The upper module was a liquid rocket called AVUM. The improved version of
22320-561: Was also introduced to Somalia through colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during the colonial period but fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in the Somali Civil War . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Although over 17 million Americans are of Italian descent , only
22475-543: Was also keen to take advantage of potential commonalities between the Vega and the proposed Ariane 6 heavy launcher. Following on from the first launch, a further four flights were conducted under the vestiges of the VERTA programme (Vega Research and Technology Accompaniment), during which observation or scientific payloads were orbited while validating and readying the Vega rocket for more lucrative commercial operations. The second launch, performed on 6 May 2013, which followed
22630-525: Was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy , but King Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speak Corsican , which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan. Francization occurred in Nice case, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy. In Corsica, on
22785-469: Was composed of graphite epoxy filament wound case and low density rubber was used for the internal insulation. The nozzle was made of light low-cost carbon phenolic material; a consumable casing was used for the igniter. The solid propellant loaded has low binder content and high aluminium percentage ( HTPB 1912 ). The first test firing of the P80 engine took place on 30 November 2006 in Kourou , and
22940-459: Was derived from a Vega-C or Vega-E, respectively. Vega C was an evolution on the original Vega launcher to enable better launch performance and flexibility. Development started following the December 2014 ESA Ministerial Council with the goal to meet the change in payload demands, both in regards to an increase in medium-sized institutional payloads, and to compete with cheaper launch providers. This new evolution incorporates various changes to
23095-544: Was established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962. From 1968 to 1972, ESRO launched seven research satellites, but ELDO was not able to deliver a launch vehicle. Both agencies struggled with the underfunding and diverging interests of their participants. The ESA in its current form was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975, when ESRO was merged with ELDO. The ESA had ten founding member states: Belgium , Denmark , France , West Germany , Italy ,
23250-497: Was first worked on by ESRO. The ESA collaborated with NASA on the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the world's first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 the ESA began Giotto , its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup . Hipparcos ,
23405-443: Was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning Standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951. Tullio De Mauro , an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861 only 2.5% of
23560-573: Was postulated that an evolved 'Europeanised' upgrade of the Vega rocket could be developed in the medium-to-long term future. Following the successful first launch, various improvements for the Vega were postulated. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) was reportedly enthusiastic on the prospects of developing a European alternative to the Vega's final, fourth stage; however, it was widely believed that there should be no change to Vega hardware for roughly 10 years in order to consolidate operations and avoid unnecessary costs early on. European Space Agency (ESA)
23715-431: Was publicly stated that the Vega programme was dependent upon the securing of roughly ECU70 million of industrial investment, as well as the availability of around ECU350 million of funding that had been requested from interested member states of the European Space Agency (ESA), led by France and Italy. During June 1998, it was announced that ministers from European Space Agency (ESA) member states had agreed to proceed with
23870-658: Was replaced by the French. This was due to the annexation of the surrounding County of Nice to France following the Treaty of Turin (1860) . It formerly had official status in Montenegro (because of the Venetian Albania ), parts of Slovenia and Croatia (because of the Venetian Istria and Venetian Dalmatia ), parts of Greece (because of the Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands and by
24025-531: Was successful. The second test firing of the Zefiro 23 second stage engine took place on 27 March 2008 also at Salto di Quirra. This successful test qualified the rocket engine. The first engine completed was Zefiro 9, the third-stage engine. The first test firing was carried out on 20 December 2005, at the Salto di Quirra Inter-force Test Range, on the Mediterranean coast in southeast Sardinia . The test
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