About Us

From University Research to the Edge of Space

Aurelia originated in 2024 from research and technology-development activities carried out at the University of Pisa since 1991. The company was created to transfer aerospace engineering expertise in aerial platforms and small satellites from the academic environment to the application domains of environmental monitoring, scientific payloads, and technology demonstration.

Principles

How we approach technology development

Scientific Rigor

Measurements, methods and results must be technically defensible, traceable and appropriate for the scientific or operational objective of the mission.

Engineering Discipline

Platforms and payloads are developed around real constraints, including mass, power, communications, environmental conditions, system reliability and operational safety.

Mission-Specific Design

Each project begins with the measurement objective. Platform configuration, payload architecture and operations are then defined around the actual requirements of the mission.

Practical Validation

Development does not end with analysis or simulation. Prototypes, payloads and operating procedures are progressively tested through integration activities, demonstrators and field campaigns.

Mission

To make specialized observation missions easier to develop and operate

Our mission is to reduce the technical barriers between an experiment or measurement objective and its deployment in an operational environment.

Aurelia supports the full mission-development process, from the definition of requirements and payload design to third-party instrument integration, flight preparation, operations and data collection.

Vision

Flexible platforms as a complement to established observation systems

Ground stations, aircraft and satellites each provide valuable but different forms of observation. Flexible aerial and near-space platforms can complement these systems by enabling targeted measurements, vertical atmospheric profiles, persistent observation and experimental missions over specific areas. Our vision is to make these capabilities accessible to research groups, public institutions, technology developers and industrial organizations requiring measurements tailored to a particular application.

Founding Team

Get to know us

Salvo Marcuccio

Space systems · Systems engineering · Research and technology development

Professor of Aerospace Systems, with 35 years of experience in the space sector, bringing deep technical expertise in aerospace platforms, systems engineering, space applications, and research-driven technology development.

Matteo Gemignani

Space systems · Systems engineering

Systems engineer. MSc Space Engineering, 2019; PhD, 2026 (“Framework for Cubesats Mission Management, Design, and Optimization”). Technical manager of the EXCITE 12U IOD-IOV Cubesat mission (ASI). Payload specialist on two CNES high-altitude flights (HEMERA 2022, StratoScience 2023).

Irene Marsili

Space systems · Systems engineering

Systems engineer. MSc Space Engineering, 2023 (“Design, Realization and Testing of a Yaw-Stabilized Modular Stratospheric Platform”). Specialist in attitude control systems design and stratospheric platform trajectory simulation.

Alessandro Filippeschi

Space systems · Systems engineering

Systems engineer. MSc Space Engineering, 2024 (“Remotely controlled imaging system for aerostatic platforms”). Specialist in design, integration and operation of environmental sensing systems.