Space, ASI dedicates an entire dawn to LiciaCube

A whole dawn dedicated to the launch of LiciaCube, the first Italian mission in deep space. The Italian Space Agency will turn on the spotlight showing live the launch of this small Italian satellite, a fundamental part of NASA’s Dart mission. LiciaCube will leave for its mission on Wednesday 24 November, at 7.22 am Italian time from the Vandenberg base, when in California it will be 22.22 on Tuesday 23 November. To follow the LiciaCube launch live, starting at 6.45 am on the 24th, ASI organized – in presence and also in live streaming – in its Auditorium in Tor Vergata, in Rome, a whole sunrise with exceptional guests. During the event, the ASI will show the objectives and stages of a program that “for the first time will be aimed at active planetary defense” and therefore “at verifying a defensive strategy against the potential dangers that may come from space”. LiciaCube has the task of creating a “real photo shoot on the impact of the US probe with an asteroid to verify the deviation of the smallest of the objects of the Didymos binary system” explains ASI who at the event of November 24 called as godmother of exception the presenter Licia Colò. Talking with her will be the Italian astronaut of the European Space Agency Luca Parmitano and the famous designer Leo Ortolani. At the same time, the all-Italian LiciaCube team coordinated by the National Institute of Astophysics (Inaf) will also be connected with Asi from the Argotec mission control center in Turin.