• 300 sqm fully equipped within a clean room, with assembly lines and advanced test systems for the serial production of electric thrusters
• The project is part of the Public-Private Partnership “Space Factory 4.0” with the Italian Space Agency, carried out with PNRR funds and the only installation of this type in Italy, which is added to the largest space simulator in Europe.
Pisa, 22 July 2025
SITAEL, a privately funded company – 100 % Italian and a leader in the aerospace sector – part of ANGEL Holding, inaugurated in Pisa its new Smart Space Factory 4.0, a technological centre for the production of electric propulsion systems intended for next-generation satellites. Chiara Pertosa, CEO of SITAEL, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The site, built in the completely renovated plant, boasts the largest Space Simulator in Europe, a fundamental infrastructure for verifying the performance of propulsion systems in simulated space environments. The new building now hosts an ISO-8 clean room, with five thermal-vacuum chambers, a vibration table to reproduce the vibrations of a space launch, as well as stations for the assembly and verification of Hall-effect electric thrusters and the fluidic systems that feed them, with a production capacity of dozens of thrusters per year.
“With the new Smart Factory for electric thrusters we take a decisive step in strengthening our industrial capacity in the space sector. Building a couple of prototypes is not enough. With the IRIDE constellation we have carried out the first serial production,” says Chiara Pertosa, CEO of SITAEL. “Electric propulsion is a distinctive competence of Sitael in the Italian landscape, and in Europe our credibility has grown enormously thanks to the in-orbit validation of the MicroHETSat electric thruster, whose key element – the cathode – has been ignited more than 3,500 times to date. The thruster factory is a dream come true, because it was not easy to get here: producing technology in series with a complex production and test cycle, in a controlled environment, is not trivial. It is not for everyone. And it is only the first step. We can increase production easily by replicating the space factory model.”
Today’s inauguration completes that of 31 March 2025, when the first major national hub of the Space Factory 4.0 – built with the contribution and support of the Italian Space Agency – was opened in Mola di Bari: a facility of over 1,000 sqm of clean room, equipped with a satellite integration centre and an environmental and functional test hub for complete satellites.
