May 21 – “I’m gathering as many fresh products as possible, even though the Agency has already sent Italian food to the International Space Station and there are great expectations for Italian cuisine up there” said Luca Parmitano via phone to Unomattina, on RAI 1. The Sicilian astronaut will take off toward the ISS on May 28, becoming the first Italian to walk in space. The launch of the “Volare” mission with the Soyuz TMA-09M will take place in the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome. Luca Parmitano, test pilot for the Italian Air Force, was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009 alongside his crewmates, the Russian Fedor Yurchikhin, and the American Karen Nyberg. The 6th Italian to go into space and the 5th to climb aboard the ISS, Parmitano will carry out the first long-term NASA-ISA mission, as planned by a bilateral memorandum between the two institutions.
