Repubblica built its roundup on figures that describe the scale of Italian space. According to Eurispes, Italy ranks sixth in the world and third in Europe by the ratio of space investment to GDP. The industry's exports grew 14 percent in 2023 to reach 7.5 billion euros, and the budget of the Italian Space Agency ASI exceeds one billion dollars a year. Meloni's visit to SpacePark was an occasion to show that alongside the big contractors a generation of young companies is also growing.
From Kyiv to Turin
Kurs Orbital was founded by Volodymyr Usov, who in 2020 headed the State Space Agency of Ukraine. Repubblica mentions only him in that role. The company is built on the Kurs technology, a rendezvous system used for years by Soyuz capsules. Its history begins in the 1980s, when the system was created by Soviet developers, including specialists at the Kyiv Radio Plant. According to InVenture, it has been used for more than 300 dockings of Soyuz and Progress spacecraft with the Mir station and the International Space Station.
In 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, supplies of Kurs to Russia ceased. The team that worked with the system began looking for new applications for this heritage. The founding dates in publications differ. Some outlets link the project's start to 2021, others to 2022. Repubblica cites 2022, and the Italian company was indeed registered in Turin that same year. The invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 changed the situation: investors began to leave, the office remained in Turin, and development continued in Kyiv.
First awards and a bet on flight
In November 2022 the company took first place in the Start Cup Piemonte VdA competition, receiving 10,000 euros and the Jacobacci Silver prize. That same month, in an interview with AstroSpace, the company said the ARCap project was 50–60 percent complete and the flight was planned for 2024. In January–March 2023 the team completed a pre-accelerator program with the Saudi Space Commission together with Techstars, and then took part in Seraphim Space Camp, a program of the British fund Seraphim Space, which invests in space projects.
In March 2024 Kurs Orbital closed a seed round of 3.7 million euros, equivalent to about 4 million dollars. The lead investor was OTB Ventures, represented by partner Wojtek Walniczek. Among the participants were the Credo fund, the Galaxia fund, in which CDP Venture Capital and Obloo participate, the PiemonteNext program, the venture arm of In-Q-Tel, linked to American intelligence agencies, and Inovo. The team at that time numbered 11 people. The ARCap flight date had shifted by then: the company cited the end of 2025.
Neighbors on the list and ecosystem recognition
In Repubblica's roundup, alongside Kurs Orbital were CamGraPhIC, for which the text gives a figure of 25 million euros, Picosats, ORiS and ARCA Dynamics. The company itself received several more recognitions at the end of 2024. In December it was included in StartupItalia's list of the 100 most promising Italian startups. On December 17, ESA BIC Turin, the European Space Agency's business incubator in Turin, named it startup of the year. The incubator's coordinator, Giuseppe Scellato, simultaneously heads I3P and teaches at the Polytechnic University of Turin. At the end of December the company received a subsidized loan of 1.1 million euros from Invitalia Smart&Start, and on January 3, 2025, Wired Italia included it in a list of ten startups to watch in 2025.
On March 24, 2025, four days before the roundup was published, Thales Alenia Space held its Space Business Catalyst program in Turin, in which space startups from the region participated.
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