CIRA, the Italian Aerospace Research Centre, is a not-for-profit research consortium established in 1984, with facilities and offices located in Capua, on a 1.6 km2 area. It leads Italy's National Aerospace Research Program (Pro.R.A), fostering scientific, technological, and economic progress in aerospace, aligned with national and also international plans, working in fields such as aerodynamics, space vehicles, propulsion, structural dynamics, flight safety, and automation. CIRA manages advanced facilities, including plasma (PWT) and icing (IWT) wind tunnels, a transonic wind Tunnel, impact labs (LISA), acoustics and vibration as well as structure and material labs, thermal and vacuum facilities for ground testing, and test infrastructures devoted to chemical (H-IMP up to 10 kN) and electric propulsion (MSVC and SSVC simulators). Since 1985, CIRA has successfully completed numerous research projects, collaborating with aerospace industries, universities, and international agencies such as ESA, ASI, NASA, and JAXA. It also plays a key role in several EU-funded and co-funded projects collaborating with European and international industrial partners and research establishments in the aerospace field. Its mission includes enhancing scientific knowledge exchange, supporting aerospace education, and training. Indeed, CIRA plays as active member of European research organizations like EREA, ESRE, GARTEUR, and ACARE. It focuses on identifying scientific objectives, advancing basic research, and supporting industry in applied research and technology validation. The Space Propulsion Unit, affiliated to the Space Directorate, has consolidated experience in chemical and electric propulsion, with capabilities spanning the design, verification, manufacturing, and testing of propulsion systems and subsystems.
A major part of this expertise derives from the HYPROB Program, funded by the Italian Ministry of Research, which focused on liquid rocket engines—particularly LOX/LCH₄ technology—and hybrid rocket engines. Within HYPROB, several breadboards and ground demonstrators were successfully designed, manufactured, and tested. Additional relevant projects include LIPROM, developed within the ASI–JAXA cooperation on liquid propulsion, and the VECEP and VUS activities supporting AVIO in VEGA launcher configuration optimization through CFD simulations and functional analyses. The knowledge acquired in HYPROB is now being applied in the TEME Project, dedicated to methane-based propulsion systems, and included in the Innovative Space Propulsion program of the national Aerospace Research Program (Pro.R.A.). Launched in mid-2021, TEME involves the development of breadboards aimed at investigating near-injector flow physics, heat transfer in complex geometries, and combustion instability, with testing performed in synergy with the HYPROB H-IMP facility at CIRA’s new plant. Hybrid propulsion developments continue within the HREP Project, also part of the Innovative Space Propulsion program, expanding thrust class capabilities and extending investigations to hydrogen peroxide systems while enhancing design tools and numerical models. In the electric propulsion field, CIRA is active, in particular, in Hall Effect thruster technologies but also other innovative technologies are considered. The Space Propulsion Laboratory hosts a 2.0x4.5 m simulator, the Medium Scale Vacuum Chamber (MSVC) dedicated to thrusters up to 5 kW power class, and a 0.5x1.0 m simulator, named Small Scale Vacuum Chamber (SSVC), devoted to micro-propulsion. A brand-new laboratory Hall Effect thruster (named CRHET-250), characterized by a nominal power and thrust values equal to 250 W and 11 mN, respectively, is under development.
Full Name: Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali
Acronym: CIRA
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