In this paper we review the story of the BeppoSAX discovery of the Gamma Ray
Burst afterglow and their cosmological distance, starting from their first
detection with Vela satellites and from the efforts done before BeppoSAX. We
also discuss the consequences of the BeppoSAX discovery, the issues left open
by BeppoSAX, the progress done up to now and its perspectives.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, published in 2011 in the international refereed
journal "La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento" of the Italian Physical Society, vol.
34. The occasion of this review paper was the award of the Fermi Prize 2010
to their authors "For the discovery of the X-ray afterglow of Gamma-Ray Burst
with the BeppoSAX satellite"
(http://www.sif.it/SIF/en/portal/activities/fermi_award
