A degree in Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering and a second level master's degree in Space & Communication Systems led Candido Fracassi to the Telespazio’s Fucino Space Centre near L'Aquila, the most important teleport in the world for civil uses.
The Centre carries out LEOP – Launch and Early Orbit Phase activities (launch and in-orbit control of satellites) and provides telecommunications, television, and multimedia services, as well as hosting the control centre of COSMO-SkyMed, the satellite constellation for Earth observation. The Galileo Control Centre Italia (GCC-I) is also based here, operational since 2010 and twin of the other centre located in Munich.
Since 2021, Candido Fracassi has been responsible for the GCC-I and in particular - as he specifies - for the Galileo Mission Segment (GMS), in which he has the responsibility of guaranteeing, supported by a team of engineers, "the generation and dissemination of the Galileo navigation message to the end user, 24 hours a day, seven days a week".
Galileo, which entered into service in 2016, is the European Union's satellite navigation system, providing a global, reliable and high-precision navigation and localisation service. The accuracy in measuring time, necessary for more precise positioning on the ground, is guaranteed by the Passive Hydrogen Maser (PHM) atomic clock, designed and built by Leonardo, at the company site in Nerviano (Milan), and located on board all the satellites of the constellation. As Candido explains, an example of the Maser is also present inside the Fucino Centre and this instrument "manages the activation of all the corrections due to interference from the troposphere and ionosphere, ensuring the quality and reliability of the navigation message generated within the Galileo Mission Segment”.
Passionate about digital and space technologies, Candido Fracassi found in Telespazio the ideal context to closely follow the programmes in line with his interests: from satellite control to digital satellite communication. And in reflecting on his 16-year career with the company, he proudly remembers his first great challenge, which occurred immediately after joining: “I had to prepare all the operational procedures for the attitude control of Giove B, the first experimental satellite of Galileo with technology on board”. And today his commitment to the programme continues, following the evolution of Galileo, which has reached the development of the second-generation satellites.
Candido is committed to transmitting multidisciplinarity, team working and competencies to future generations, through educational activities in schools. “Being informed about the technologies we are developing” – he states – “is essential to orient oneself in choosing a major, and to be competitive in the job market”.