Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial

The Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial is Spain's space agency. It was founded in 1942, as the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeronáutica, and has its headquarters in Torrejón de Ardoz, near Madrid.OrganizationIts budget of more than €150 million comes from the Spanish Ministry of Defence and from its own projects with the industry. As of 2008 INTA has a total of 1200 employees, 80% of them dedicated to R&D activities.Its two main areas of activity are research and development (for example, in propulsion, materials, remote sensing) and certification and testing (for example, in aircraft, software, metrology).OperationsTracking and launch sitesNowadays, INTA controls both the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex and the El Arenosillo rocket launch site in southern Spain.LaunchersINTA designed atmospheric sounding rockets such as: INTA-100 INTA-255 INTA-300 Capricornio These operate from the El Arenosillo rocket launch site.