A few miles east of Matera, in Southern Italy, a research center belonging to the Italian Space Agency (ASI) sits far into the countryside of the Murge plateau, away from towns and busy roads. The Centro di Geodesia Spaziale (Center for Space Geodesy), dedicated to Italian mathematician Giuseppe Colombo, was founded in 1983 as a collaboration between the National Research Council (CNR), NASA, and the Region of Basilicata. It’s managed by Italian spaceflight company Telespazio. The center now hosts more than 100 employees, working for ASI, Telespazio, and other private…
