Italian Astronauts
As an ESA member heavily involved in human spaceflight, ASI sponsors a select few Italian citizens to train at ESA’s European Astronaut Corps (EAC) to represent the country on missions. Italians to have flown in space are:
- Franco Malerba, Italy’s first astronaut and the only one not to fly as a member of the EAC. He flew on STS-46 (July 31 to August 7, 1992) as payload specialist on the first Tethered Satellite System mission.
- Umberto Guidoni, flew on STS-75 (February 22 to March 9, 1996) as payload specialist on the second Tethered Satellite System mission - TSS-1R. He became the first Italian and European on the International Space Station during STS-100 (April 19 to May 1, 2001).
- Maurizio Cheli, flew with Umberto Guidoni as a mission specialist on STS-75.
- Roberto Vittori, has flown on multiple missions to the ISS: Soyuz TM-33, Soyuz TM-34, Soyuz TMA-5, Soyuz TMA-6 and STS-134.
- Paolo A. Nespoli, flew on STS-120 (October 23 to November 7, 2007),; he then returned on the ISS for the long duration MagISStra mission (Expedition 26/27, from December 15, 2010, to May 23, 2011) aboard the Soyuz TMA-20.
Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano are Italy’s newest astronauts, being selected in 2009, and have yet to fly.
Read more about this topic: Italian Space Agency
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