He spent 35 days, 12 hours and 25 seconds in space

He was born in Viterbo on October 15th, 1964, he’s an Air Force pilot and was selected by the Italian Space Agency in 1998. In 2002, he took place in the Italian Marco Polo mission aboard a Russian Soyuz TM-34 capsule, where he was the first European to be appointed as pilot. He took the same flight in 2005, aboard the Soyuz TMA-6 for another Italian mission, Eneide.  He came back to space for the third time in 2011 with the second-to-last mission of the STS-134 shuttle, on the Endeavour shuttle. The mission, known as DAMA, fell within the group of the Italian Space Agency missions for the ISS; such missions are the result of an agreement with the NASA for the supply of the logistic modules. The mission has the task of installing the AMS-02 dark matter and antimatter detector on the International Space Station.

‣ News

WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2022

ARTEMIS 1 LIFTOFF! ‣

A leading role for our country, with the Italian space sector guided by the Italian Space Agency MORE...

SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2022

Astrosamantha has returned to Earth ‣

The astronaut concludes the Minerva mission after almost six months aboard the space outpost. Watch the video on ASITV MORE...

WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2022

Samantha Cristoforetti in charge of the ISS ‣

Samantha has become the first European woman to take the lead of the space outpost. The video is available on ASITV MORE...

WEDNESDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2022

SAMANTHA CRISTOFORETTI WILL BE THE COMMANDER OF THE ISS ‣

AstroSamantha will become the first European astronaut in command of the International Space Station MORE...

THURSDAY 21 JULY 2022

ASTROSAMANTHA, THE FIRST EUROPEAN SPACEWALKER ‣

First extravehicular activity for Samantha Cristoforetti MORE...