L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2019 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 2 M an has always been incredibly fascinated by the Moon. Reaching it, 50 years ago, having walked on it, changed the history of Humanity. A dream, one of the greatest, that turned into reality. Everyone of us has a dream like that: it may be love, a child, conquering an illness, getting a house, reaching a professional goal, traveling, it doesn't matter. To us, that dream is a reason to be, it's our ambition, aim, final goal. It isn't difficult, if you see it like that, to identify with Neil Armstrong or Luca Parmitano. Or with Rocco Petrone, the Italian immigrant who managed to get into West Point in the midst of the War with an enemy surname, then got a degree from MIT and rose to fame with NASA: he was the man who started the Apollo 11 countdown, the man who uttered the "Go" that changed The incredibly human mission of conquering Space From the director the history of Mankind. These are all men who worked on that dream more than we can imagine, with incredible training sessions and physical proofs of endurance and strength most of us consider super human. They went through psychological and survival trainings who left them face to face with their own fears and tested their ability to react and function, stripping them of all securities, making them aware of their weaknesses and strengths. Yet, in the end, they transformed their ambitions into reality. In truth, every one of us does something similar on a daily basis: maybe not literally, but certainly ideally. We study, we work, we fight and strongly believe in our success. And in the end, many of us do reach and conquer their own star, touching it with their own hand. Many others, perhaps, only get close to the sky, without ever reaching it, but the journey made their life worthy, nevertheless. Because, if we wholly and completely want to reach something, we hit the target anyway even if we don't get the result we wanted. If we tried, and tried hard, we don't lose. It seems strange to speak about Man, when looking up and into Space. Yet, that infinite darkness makes sense because we conceive it, because we want to get face to face with it. If our eyes, transfixed by the star shining in a Summer sky, didn't exist, if we didn't invent telescopes and radio waves, if we didn't write poems to the Moon and created gods inspired by constellations, if we didn't confront ourselves with the beauty of the Cosmos, the sky above us would mean nothing. We would ignore it. We'd be like fish, solely immersed in our water dimension. On the contrary, we are minds that look up at the stars and that allow dreams and ambitions to grow and become the very aim of our existence. Whatever those may be… a voyage in space, or a personal goal. It seems strange, but, in the end, it isn't. Luca Parmitano, Italian Air Force colonel, reminded us of it during his last press conference before leaving for the ISS, the International Space Station: "We leave Earth for the Earth and we feel we are serving Humanity as a whole." This is exactly the point. This six-month mission in Space: such a short breath in the immense Time of the Universe, but such a long time, if we think of how microscopic Man is, when compared to Space. It is an incredibly human endeavor. It has all the charm of Humanity. Because the astronaut flying into the stars is also a father, who leaves behind his daughters and who whispered in his wife's ear the same words Armstrong — and dozens of other astronauts after him — uttered before leaving for similar missions. Perhaps, a kiss has been sufficient, looking into each other's eyes or share a hug full of love, hope and trust. Great statements are not always necessary. Normality, constance, commitment are worth a thousand words and even explain silence. Space missions have a special allure, they attract our attention because they carry us to the boundaries between what we consider possible and impossible, they make human limits tangible, they show us where we can and cannot go. Of course, there are analogous situations on Earth, but when we are in Space, we really understand we are only specks of dust, tiny ants facing Immensity. We think once again about our being human. About the beauty and finite nature of our body and our mind. And in all this, we recognize the greatness of human thought, the power of imagination and the creativity of geniality, that invents any type of instrument just to reach that one, incredible goal. And this creative neural activity doesn't only allow us to create an endless series of perfect connections able to bring Man 384.400 km from Earth, but also to hypothesize, ideate and create a way back among thousands of possible variables. And that's why we don't only perceive, in it, the immensity of the Cosmos, but also the poetry of Humanity. Simone Schiavinato, Director NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS

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