By: Michelle Duquette, Ambassador – Operations
On December 4th, I attended the Italian Embassy’s Italian Space Day. Beyond the excellent pasta and coffee, the event demonstrated how strategic positioning, innovative partnerships and ecosystem thinking can reshape global economies. It offered valuable insights for both the commercial space and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) industries.
The Space Economy Explosion
Some attendees projected that the space economy could reach $10 trillion USD by 2050, up from today’s $600-650 billion. By then, our low-altitude drone operations would be over 30 years old, and today’s integration challenges will be as unfathomable as the rotary telephone. With autonomous advanced aviation flight and commercial space rising together, our national airspace system (NAS) will evolve into something we’ve yet to fully envision.
Italy’s Strategic Blueprint
My interpretations are filtered through a deeply rooted strategic operational positioning lens that I apply to everything I experience. At the event, these Italian strategies spoke strongly to me for both space and AAM.
Own What You Do Best
Italy produces 60% of pressurized volume on the International Space Station (ISS) and is positioned to supply habitats for next-generation orbital infrastructure.
The Lesson: Dominate specific, high-value segments where you can establish defensible advantages and your strengths contribute to the rising tide.
Prioritize Resources
Italy treats launch as a commoditized service, focusing resources on exquisite habitats and technology. Premium payload providers can focus solely on payload refinement while benefiting from launch competitive pricing.
The Lesson: There is tremendous benefit in not trying to do everything yourself.
“Last-Mile” Leap-Frogging
The “last-mile” in space (servicing, assembly, logistics) represents significant value as infrastructure scales. Italian firms excel in in-orbit logistics, servicing,and maneuvering. Each time an operation is stabilized by “last-mile” innovation, that last-mile segment becomes a path extension to the next node in the system, where a new “last mile” presents itself. And so on.
The Lesson: “End-to-End” doesn’t scale. Similarly, the drone “last-mile” segment encompasses edge computing and energy services to enable low-altitude operational scaling. Follow the Italian space model.
Innovation Ecosystems
Italy’s $2 billion in innovation funding supports small and medium-sized enterprises rather than national champions. This has created a diverse industrial base.
The Lesson: Actionable innovation comes from subject-matter-expert (SME) environments. Industrial diversity is a strategic advantage.
Invest in Infrastructure – Physical and Digital
Both space and AAM require building enabling infrastructure ahead of demand. Commercial operators are building foundational infrastructure (communications, navigation, timing) for a sustained lunar economy and creating the template for commercially owned infrastructure. Italy’s HyperTwin digital platform for AAM authorization demonstrates an operationalized infrastructure-first approach across domains.
Intuitive Machines’ Stephen Altemus demonstrated that commercial space infrastructure is becoming a reality:
- Lunar Data Relay Network: $4.8 billion NASA contract for commercial ground-to-space relay extending to 2 million kilometers.
- Lunar Navigation Constellation: Partnership with Leonardo Telespazio expanding from five to ten satellites around the Moon.
- Timeline: First satellite launches in 2026, supporting at least 25 years of lunar operations.
Italy also uses digital twin simulations to authorize new drone and eVTOL operations, proving safety virtually before physical flights. The same philosophy applies across cislunar operations to urban air mobility.
The Lesson: Invite space thought leaders to low-altitude infrastructure discussions with the Brand New Air Traffic Control System integrator and other AAM experts. Commercial Space can help us build the infrastructure layer that delivers meaningful aviation services at low altitudes today. We don’t need to wait for a bolt-on in Phase II.
Tackle Workforce Challenges
Multiple speakers emphasized the workforce gap as critical. The space industry needs trained engineers and technicians for Artemis, Mars missions and commercial stations. This directly parallels AAM’s scaling constraints.
The Lesson: Whether training aerospace engineers for lunar infrastructure or drone operators for commercial operations, workforce development represents a shared bottleneck that must be addressed now and holistically.
Why 2030 Matters
Italy’s next-generation orbital infrastructure targets 2030 (“tomorrow” from a space perspective). This timeline aligns with AAM scaling expectations: eVTOL certification, UTM maturity and corridor-like operations are all targeted for the late 2020s. The convergence reflects how long complex aerospace systems take to mature. Aviation is a long game.
But I have urgent questions for both industries: What capabilities must be operational by 2030? What partnerships must be secured in the next 2-3 years? What workforce must be trained today?
Strategic Takeaways: The Bridge Between Air and Space Operations
Italy positions itself as “the bridge between Europe and the U.S.” for space infrastructure. But their simultaneous leadership in space (ISS modules, lunar communications) and AAM (HyperTwin authorization) reveals that the operational and regulatory challenges of managing complex aerospace systems apply across all air domains, including AAM.
The Italian aerospace system scaling strategies work from ground level to cislunar space: digital infrastructure for authorization; simulation-based safety validation; cross-sector partnerships and workforce training. A few of the key takeaways I culled from this amazing event include:
- Specialization beats broad competition. Italy’s focus on habitats, in-orbit services and logistics creates defensible market positions.
- Commoditization creates opportunity. As launch commoditizes, value shifts to payloads and services.
- SME ecosystems drive innovation. Diverse industrial bases consistently out-innovate concentrated national champion models.
- Infrastructure precedes operations. Whether for lunar communications, urban air mobility or UTM, enabling infrastructure must be built before operations can be scaled.
- Cross-sector partnerships accelerate capability. The most valuable expertise often resides outside traditional aerospace.
Italy’s playbook maps remarkably well to the framework I use to evaluate all aerospace work: Does it advance true interoperability across our NAS? Does it emphasize operational pragmatism and proven technology over theoretical possibilities? Does it require strategic partnerships and bridge-building to succeed? These questions consistently separate transformative initiatives from incremental ones.
Italy’s space strategy succeeds precisely because it answers yes to all three. Their focus on habitats and in-orbit services creates interoperable infrastructure. Their decision to treat launch as a commodity reflects operational pragmatism. Their SME ecosystem funding model depends entirely on cross-sector collaboration.
The same framework applies whether we’re discussing lunar relay networks, urban air mobility corridors, digital twin authorization platforms, or drone services. The technologies differ, but the strategic imperatives remain constant.
Adding More Lens To the Operational Framework
I want to thank the Italian Trade Agency (ITA – Houston) for inviting Autonomy Global, and me as its Operational Ambassador, to Italian Space Day at the Embassy in D.C. What began with excellent pasta and coffee evolved into valuable learning about a strategic framework to reshape global economies through aerospace innovation.
Italy demonstrated lessons in strategic positioning, innovative partnerships and ecosystem thinking that serve as a blueprint for how the commercial space and AAM industries can scale together. Italy’s approach offers a tested playbook: specialize strategically, leverage adjacent industries, build enabling infrastructure ahead of demand and maintain diverse ecosystems enabling genuine innovation. All of this should inform our understanding of what’s possible when we think across domains.
I’ll leave you with the three new sticky notes that I intend to apply to my own operational framework thinking, as well as one final call to action:
- Think in terms of an operational ecosystem, within the context of infrastructure.
- People who know nothing about your domain will likely provide brilliant solutions.
- Investing today is crucial to unlock unrealized innovation potential for tomorrow.
The Final Call to Action: AAM and drone professionals should consider attending cross-domain events like this one. You can’t connect the dots between domains and industries until you learn about them. Once you do, the sky is no longer the limit. Instead, you may start thinking in terms of Infinity…and beyond!
Learn more about ITA at https://www.ice.it/en.