Salto di Quirra
is a restricted weapons testing range and
rocket
launch site near
Perdasdefogu
on the island of
Sardinia
. It is the largest military range in Italy, composed of 12,000 hectares of land owned by the
Italian Ministry of Defence
and one of the largest in operation within the
European Union
.
[1]
Birth defects and cancer in the area have been blamed on weaponry used at the site.
[2]
Sardinia
hosts about 60% of Italian military ranges and together with
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
[3]
is one of the most militarized regions of
Italy
.
Salto di Quirra primarily launches military rockets, but civilian rockets, such as the
Skylark
, have occasionally been launched for the study of the
upper atmosphere
.
The Salto di Quirra range is located close to the town of
Perdasdefogu
in a mountainous zone at the southeast of Sardinia. It is an inter-arm range, currently placed under the authority of the
Italian Air Force
. Its main activity deals with the tests of various types of missiles used or built by Italy, or in collaboration.
At the beginning of the 1960s, this base was used for the first
sounding rocket
launches carried out by the CRA (Centro Ricerche Aerospaziali) in cooperation with the Italian Air Force and NASA. Three campaigns of
Nike-Asp
and
Nike-Cajun
launches took place in 1961 and 1963.
From 1964 and until 1972, it was used for the
ESRO
's sounding rocket program using especially
Skylark
and
Centaure
rockets, but also
Belier
and
Zenit-C
. During this period, some sounding rockets were also launched on behalf of Switzerland and Germany.
After 1972, the Salto di Quirra activities in the field of rocketry were limited to national programs. Three
Alfa
experimental vehicles were launched successfully in 1973-75. A test of the
San Marco
scout rocket, in 1992, was less successful.
Vega test firings
[
edit
]
Zefiro 9
[
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]
Two test firings of the
Zefiro 9
rocket engine, designed to power the third stage of the
Vega
launch vehicle, have been conducted at Salto di Quirra. The first test firing took place 20 December 2005 and was a complete success.
[4]
The second firing, on 28 March 2007, experienced unexpected anomalous behavior.
[5]
Space and missiles operations
[
edit
]
From its very first start, the Salto di Quirra (Sardinia) firing range played a relevant role in Italian space operations. The range belonged to the
ITAF
Ammunition Research Unit, since 1956 headed by
Luigi Broglio
whose name had been put forward by Gen.
Mario Pezzi
. In 1959, the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and ITAF started a research program in the outer atmosphere using rocket-carried probes. In 1961, together with
NASA
, CNR planned a series of weather experiments releasing clouds of lithium-sodium carried in the atmosphere by USA-built Nike-Cajun missiles launched from the
Wallops Island Base
(Va) and Salto di Quirra (Italy) range. High altitude atmospheric streams could be measured quite accurately observing contemporarily the litho-sodium clouds from seven ground-stations in Italy (five in Sardinia and one each at Furbara base and Borgo Piave observation post).
The first launch of the series took place on January 12, 1961. A two-stage Nike-Cajun missile released 20 kg of
sodium
and
lithium
dust at an altitude of 90 km (270 000 ft). Six launches altogether were accomplished successfully. Broglio and his team set even a record, a triple launch within 24 hours, starting on the morning of January 19 and ending up the evening of the day after. Thanks to media reporting, the world at large was informed of Italian space research activities and that it was operating a missile launching pad. After this exploit, the Salto di Quirra base was involved in many research programs particularly in the
European Space Research Organization (ESRO)
framework.
In 1962 ESRO planned a series of eight launches to study the outer atmosphere and the
ionosphere
. These experiments were to be fundamental to build the
European Space Agency
in the following years: British-built Skylark and French-built Centaure missiles were used for the tests. The high level of both personnel and facilities at Salto di Quirra made it the favourite launching base of ESRO until 1972, following an agreement signed in Paris in 1967 by ESRO's CEO,
Pierre Auger
.
In 1985 the
Avio Company
built a vertical structure in Salto di Quirra to test the engines of the European vectors
Ariane 3
and
Ariane 4
and the
Zefiro
vector, from its prototype Zefiro 16 to Zefiro 9 down to number 23 in the series. At Salto di Quirra the second and third stages of
Vega
were tested thoroughly, the Vega being a new European vector developed and built mostly by Italian firms.
Birth defects and cancer
[
edit
]
Local citizens have coined the term 'Quirra syndrome' for an increase in deformities and cancer in the area. In one town, a quarter of children born in a single year in the late 1980s had birth defects. Researchers discovered that almost two-thirds of local shepherds had cancer, which has been blamed on thorium dust and depleted uranium. Former commanders of the site have since been made to appear before the Italian courts.
[2]
[6]
References
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]
External links
[
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]
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Active
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Europe
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North America
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- United States government:
USSF
- NASA
- United
States
academic launches
- United States private launches
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Oceania
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South America
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International waters
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Proposed
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Historical
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