Antonio Rodotà (24 December 1935 – 23 February 2006) was the fifth Director General of the European Space Agency (

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), serving from 1997 until 2003. He died in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on February 23, 2006, aged 70. He was the brother of Stefano Rodotà, a former Italian politician.

Early years

Rodotà was born on 24 December 1935 in Cosenza, Italy. After graduating from University of Rome in 1959 as an electronics engineer, he began his career with SISPRE SpA, Italy.

Career

In 1965 he served as Italian delegate to

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, then joined Italian company Selenia from 1966 to 1980, followed by three years as head of the Compagnia Nazionale Satelliti. He then moved on to Alenia-Spazio in 1983 where he held a series of senior positions before becoming chief executive in 1995. Under his leadership, Alenia became a supplier of space hardware for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

European Space Agency

Before joining ESA, he was director of the Space Division of

Finmeccanica Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...

(Italy) and a member of the boards of several international companies, as well as

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. During his term of office at ESA, Rodotà was an active advocate of international cooperation, a promoter of European space activities, and was one of the founders of the Galileo European

satellite navigation A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pr ...

system.

Tribute

ESA's next Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain paid tribute by saying,

Sources

Antonio Rodotà
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodota, Antonio 1935 births 2006 deaths European Space Agency personnel Italian people of Arbëreshë descent