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The fall of Romano Prodi's Italian government last week could delay the adoption of the Italian Space Agency's proposed five-year plan, which is set almost to double the amount of money spent on basic research.

The details of the IL6.5 trillion(US$3.8 billion) space plan for 1998 to 2002, which was approved by the government last month and which will make Italy the third highest spender on space science in Europe, are due to be formally submitted to parliament at the end of this month.

But if President Oscar Luigi Scalfero chooses to call a general election rather than form an interim government, parliamentary approval of the 1998 budget, of which the plan is a part, is unlikely before the end of the year. That would delay new initiatives for the first part of next year.

And the plan includes many new and important initiatives. The space agency, ASI, has regained most of the credibility it lost in the early 1990s when it was dragged down by financial crisis, political scandal and general mismanagement, and when payment of approved research grants ceased because of a bizarre and protracted battle about the proportion of the ASI budget that should legally be dedicated to basic research (see Nature 357, 351; 1992).

The new plan allocates more than 20 per cent of the budget to science, nearly doubling the science budget allocated by ASI previously. Money will be divided equally between national activities and activities associated with the European Space Agency (ESA). National activities comprise four programmes: small scientific satellites; planetary exploration; scientific uses of the Space Station; and investigator-initiated basic research.

For the first time the scientific community has been directly involved in defining the ASI science plan, says Giovanni Bignami, the agency's science director. The community will also be directly involved in the selection of missions. A call for ideas for small satellite missions was put out in May. Around 60 proposals have been received by ASI. About ten of these will be chosen by ASI for presentation at an open meeting in early December, where the scientific community will select five for parallel feasibility studies to be completed next year. The eventual winner may expect a launch around 2002.

The planetary exploration programme will fund participation of Italian scientists in missions initiated by ESA and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). For example, ASI is discussing with NASA the possibility that Italian scientists be given access to surface-science robotics experiments in NASA's Mars programme, in view of NASA's recent invitation to Italy to contribute to the Mars programme's telecommunications system.

ASI has also doubled its budget for scientific exploitation of the International Space Station. “The station is here to stay,” says Bignami. “So we must make the best possible use of whatever opportunities it offers for science.”

A further fifth of the space plan's budget will be devoted to Earth observation, and an eighth to the development of a national launcher, able to put payloads of up to one tonne into a low-Earth orbit.