SHARAD was developed under the responsibility of the Italian Space Agency (ASI, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana), and provided to JPL for use on board NASA's "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter" spacecraft in the frame of a NASA/ASI agreement which foresees exploitation of the data by a joint Italian/US team. The INFOCOM dept. of the University of Sapienza University of Rome is responsible for the instrument operations, while Thales Alenia Space Italia (formerly Alenia Spazio) designed and built the instrument. SHARAD operations are managed by INFOCOM from the SHARAD Operation Centre (SHOC), located within the Alcatel Alenia Space facilities in the suburbs of Rome.