IEG brings The Astronaut's Home to BEX, a first journey into the future of human life in space

·       The Astronaut's Home is unveiled, one of the new features of the first edition of BEX, the international expo-conference dedicated to the convergence between the space economy and terrestrial industries, taking place in Rimini on 23-25 September.

·       The companies contributing to the content of The Astronaut's Home include Technogym, GVM Assistance, Formula Medicine and NTT DATA Italia, Spacewear, Electrolux Professional, Artisia by Barilla, ALTEC and Thales Alenia Space, along with Università Politecnica delle Marche, CETMA and ENEA, which will offer visitors virtual reality experiences set in orbit.

·       The project is supported by Axiom Space, by CETMA as Knowledge Partner and by Stark1200, which specializes in multimedia technologies and set design, with Prostand as Technical Partner.

·       BEX is held under the patronage of ASI and with the support of ICE - Italian Trade Agency and ESA, and is an official stop on the Stati Generali della Space Economy 2026.

Rimini, 27 August 2026 - At the first edition of BEX - Beyond Exploration Expo, taking place at Rimini Expo Centre from 23 to 25 September, IEG presents The Astronaut's Home, an immersive journey that sets out to answer a simple question: how will we live in space? The project brings together in a single installation the conditions that let a person work, eat, stay healthy and build a daily routine in extreme environments such as an orbiting station or the Moon, and it shows how many of the solutions developed for exploration are already delivering benefits here on Earth.

The theme sits within a fast-growing sector: in 2024 the Italian aerospace supply chain recorded revenue of €21.4 billion, with the space segment up 63% from 2021, according to the CTNA-Confindustria mapping presented at the Italian Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy.

The experience, conceived by BEX and developed with the support of CETMA - Centro Europeo di Ricerca, Trasferimento tecnologico e Design as Knowledge Partner, follows humanity's path toward space and unfolds across four areas, complemented by the Think Lounge, the cross-cutting space for dialogue between the space world and non-space sectors. The Astronaut's Home also draws on the support of Axiom Space, with its CEO Jonathan Cirtain in attendance, and of Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), which is also exhibiting a model of the MPH, the multi-purpose habitation module for the lunar surface designed and developed by the company for the Italian Space Agency (ASI) within the Artemis Program in cooperation with NASA.

The Human Factor opens the path with the preparation of body and mind for the mission, spanning training technologies, medicine and physiological monitoring. It features GVM Assistance, with its telemonitoring systems, Formula Medicine and NTT DATA Italia, the Italian branch of the global leader in artificial intelligence, digital business and technology services. The Wearable Habitat traces the evolution of astronaut clothing, from flight suits to the new frontiers of textile innovation. At the heart of the area is Spacewear, which brings the suits worn by Walter Villadei on his Virgin Galactic flight along with several everyday garments inspired by that suit, showing how solutions born for space can become products for daily life. Displayed alongside them, together with the Italian Air Force, are suits tied to the history of Italian space exploration.

The Mission Lab shows how microgravity becomes a laboratory for research, new materials and the life sciences. Università Politecnica delle Marche presents an avatar of Walter Villadei that can hold a conversation with the public, while CETMA brings a virtual reality experience devoted to exploring the International Space Station and a holographic cube that tells the story of SOMNIIA, the sleep-monitoring mask born from ASI research. The Orbital Harvest closes the path with the growing, preservation and preparation of food far from Earth: ALTEC recreates the journey of a space meal with real food samples, while ENEA presents its own prototypes and a virtual reality experience devoted to greenhouses in extreme environments.

Cutting across the four areas, the Think Lounge hosts short talks over the three days with astronauts, companies, researchers and institutional representatives. The full program will be released shortly and includes, among others, a conversation on training the human body for space with Technogym and a look at what the kitchen of future habitats could be, with Electrolux Professional, which imagines the space kitchen drawing on its experience building kitchens in extreme environments, such as the North Pole, and on its remote control and maintenance technologies, working toward a kitchen able to operate in microgravity. Also on the program is a session on food as micro-architecture led by Barilla and Artisia, the stars of the Space Cocktail, where visitors will be able to taste their 3D Spaghetto, a Compasso d'Oro winner. The thread that ties the events together is technology transfer between space and terrestrial industries.

"Anyone who has flown a mission knows that space tests people first, not just machines. Staying healthy, training and eating well far from Earth takes solutions that come from the work of very advanced companies and research centers, each quite different from the next. The Astronaut's Home tells this part of the story too, and shows how technologies developed in space can improve life on Earth," says Walter Villadei, Colonel in the Italian Air Force, astronaut and BEX ambassador.

"We designed The Astronaut's Home as a path the visitor experiences firsthand. Each area starts from a real need of life in orbit, from health to food to materials, and connects it to the same questions companies and research centers are asking here on Earth. The demonstration-driven approach lets us show solutions that already exist and often arise in one world to answer a need in the other. From there we want knowledge and deeper understanding to grow, because it is in the meeting between space and terrestrial industry that BEX finds its purpose," says Alessandra Astolfi, Global Exhibition Director of IEG's Green & Technology Division.

BEX - Beyond Exploration Expo is the first Italian trade fair entirely dedicated to the space economy. Taking place in Rimini from 23 to 25 September 2026, BEX is designed as an international hub for the meeting between the traditional space industry (upstream), downstream applications and non-space sectors interested in the opportunities offered by space technologies. The event features exhibition areas, conferences, technical workshops, matchmaking sessions and an area dedicated to startups, universities and research centers.

PRESS CONTACT IEG
Head of media relations & corporate communication: Elisabetta Vitali; press office manager: Marco Forcellini, Pier Francesco Bellini; press office coordinator: Luca Paganin; press office specialist: Mirko Malgieri; press office assistant: Julia Andreatta; media@iegexpo.it

MEDIA AGENCY BEX - BEYOND EXPLORATION EXPO: MEP S.r.l.
Leonardo Vivard - leonardo.vivard@mep.it - mob. +39 3897652135 | Valentina Impellizzeri - valentina.impellizzeri@mep.it

This press release contains forward-looking elements and estimates that reflect management's current views ('forward-looking statements'), particularly with regard to future operating performance, investments, cash flow trends and developments in the financial structure. By their nature, forward-looking statements carry an element of risk and uncertainty, since they depend on the occurrence of future events. Actual results may differ significantly from those announced, owing to a range of factors including, by way of example only: trends in the out-of-home dining market and in tourist flows in Italy, trends in the gold and jewelry market, trends in the green economy market; changes in raw material prices; general macroeconomic conditions; geopolitical factors and developments in the regulatory framework. Moreover, the information contained in this press release does not claim to be complete, nor has it been verified by independent third parties. The projections, estimates and objectives presented here are based on the information available to the Company as of the date of this press release.