May 14 – The launch date of the Volare mission is approaching: on May 28, a Soyuz TMA-09M will lift-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to carry to the International Space Station the Italian Luca Parmitano, Air Force major and test pilot selected by the ESA astronaut corps in 2009. His journey into space will be in the company of th the Russian Fedor Yurchikhin and the American Karen Nyberg. Parmitano is the 6th Italian sixth to go into space and the 5th to climb on board of the ISS. He will carry out the first long-term mission assigned to the ISA from NASA, in accordance with a bilateral memorandum between the two institutions. For six months, until November, the astronaut will mainly focus on testing activities: Diapason and Ice (Italian Combustion Experiment) are the two main experiments of the Green Air program that will begin during his mission. Diapason, by the Italian Dtm, focuses on the detection in the air, via specific equipment, of nanometer particles relevant to studies on air pollution. ICE will then study innovative fuels with low environmental impact. In particular, it will analyze the biofuel behavior, whose composition has been defined and proposed by the motors of the CNR of Naples. During the mission, the astronauts on board will manage the arrival of the European ATV-Einstein automatic spacecraft. Other scientific experiments in the field of physiology and technology, such as tests on combustion, will also take place. Parmitano will not only operate within the ISS, but he will be the first Italian to operate two extravehicular activities.
The “Volare” mission and the first Italian astronaut to spacewalk
