L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano L ast week, eight y e a r s a f t e r h e r f i r s t h i s t o r i c a l m i s s i o n , o u r S a m a n t h a Cristoforetti – lovingly known as Astro Samantha – returned to Space. At 9.52 a . m . I t a l i a n t i m e , o n t h e 2 7 t h o f A p r i l , S p a c e X ' s Freedom brought her, and three other astronauts, to the ISS. But Italy's love story with S p a c e d i d n ' t s t a r t w i t h Samantha. If you think of it, we've been mingling with the stars above since the t i m e s o f G a l i l e o . T o d a y , though, we don't want to go all the way back to Renais- s a n c e , b u t f o c u s o n t h e c o u n t r y ' s 2 0 t h a n d 2 1 s t - century contribution to the "space race." Nothing like what the US did, perhaps, but significant nonetheless, as the regular presence of our astronauts in important i n t e r n a t i o n a l m i s s i o n s shows. Our long-term relation- ship with Space started in 1962 when, thanks to the v i s i o n o f L u i g i B o g l i o , t h e P r o g e t t o S a n Marco was born, founded o n t h e c o l l a b o r a t i o n b e t w e e n t h e I t a l i a n A i r Force (Aeronautica Militare I t a l i a n a ) a n d t h e C N R (Consiglio Nazionale delle R i c e r c h e ) , o u r n a t i o n a l research council, with the support of NASA. On the 15th of December 1964, the San Marco Satellite enters the Earth's orbit, making of Italy the 5th country in the world – after USSR, USA, Great Britain, and Canada – to enter the Space race. T h e S a n M a r c o P r o g r a m was to last until 1980. In 1975, Italy is one of the founding countries of t h e E u r o p e a n S p a c e Agency, which marks the beginning of a long string of collaborations with NASA, especially thanks to Space- Lab, a lab module designed by ESA to be used on the S h u t t l e . T h i s m e a n t t h a t European astronauts could take part in NASA missions and brought to the selec- tion, in 1978, of the first Old Continent's Space trav- elers: among them, there was also an Italian, Franco Malerba. Some 13 years after the c r e a t i o n o f E S A , I t a l y f o u n d s i t s o w n s p a c e a g e n c y , t h e A g e n z i a Spaziale Italiana (ASI): thanks to it, the dream of young scientists to be astro- n a u t s c o u l d b e c o m e t r u e more easily, as the agency was to increase the number o f s p e c i a l i s t s t o w o r k i n Space. The first project in which ASI took part was the Tethered Satellite System ( T S S ) , d e v e l o p e d w i t h NASA. In Italy, the project w a s k n o w n b y a p r e t t y funny name, il satellite al guinzaglio, "the satellite on a leash," because of its peculiar structure. It was only a matter of t i m e f o r t h e f i r s t I t a l i a n astronaut to fly to Space: in 1992, Franco Malerba spent almost 8 days in orbit, as part of the STS-46 mission t h a t t o o k o f f f r o m t h e Kennedy Space Center on the 31st of July: the mission wasn't a complete success, t h o u g h , b e c a u s e o f s o m e t e c h n i c a l i s s u e s t h a t p l a g u e d i t s i n c e i t s v e r y beginning. This didn't dis- courage ASI, which kept its c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h N A S A going. But the opportunities for our astronauts to make the v o y a g e i n c r e a s e d a l s o thanks to ESA's continuous work, which brought to the fore another Italian, Maur- izio Cheli. It's him, along w i t h U m b e r t o Guidoni, who traveled to Space on board of the TSS- 1R, the second TSS flight, during the STS-75 Shuttle C o l u m b i a m i s s i o n : i n 1 5 days the two Italians, along with other astronauts, car- ried out all the experiments t h e y h a d p l a n n e d . T h i s t i m e , t h e m i s s i o n w a s a complete success. The 1990s are pivotal in the history of Italian and European Space research thanks to the creation of the International Space Sta- tion, or ISS. In those years, E S A h a d d e v e l o p e d t h e Columbus space lab, which was eventually integrated into the ISS: with the cargo s h u t t l e A T V , i t w a s t h e most significant European c o n t r i b u t i o n t o t h e I S S . C o l u m b u s h a d a v e r y noticeable Italian accent, b e c a u s e i t s s t r u c t u r e , i t s micro-meteorite protection system, and its thermal and environmental control sys- tem were all developed in Italy. In the meanwhile, the c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h N A S A w a s s t i l l g o i n g s t r o n g : thanks to a bilateral agree- m e n t , A S I c o n s t r u c t e d three Multi-Purpose Logis- tic Modules (MLPM) called L e o n a r d o , R a f f a e l l o , a n d Donatello. And so, considering the strong involvement of the country's researchers and s c i e n t i s t s b o t h w i t h E S A and NASA, it's not surpris- ing to learn that the first E u r o p e a n a s t r o n a u t o n b o a r d o f t h e I S S w a s a n Italian, Umberto Guidoni: i t w a s t h e 2 1 s t o f A p r i l 2001. In the early to mid- 2000s, ESA continued its work with NASA and began c o l l a b o r a t i n g w i t h t h e R u s s i a n s p a c e a g e n c y , Roscosmos. In 2005, the Regione Lazio and the Ital- i a n M i n i s t r y o f D e f e n s e sponsored the ESA's "Enei- de" mission, which brought astronauts to the ISS for a 10-days stay. H o w e v e r , i t i s t h e t i e s b e t w e e n A S I a n d N A S A , and the increasingly impor- tant contribution of Italy to ESA that made the differ- e n c e i n t h e m o s t r e c e n t y e a r s . D u r i n g t h e f o u r t h ESA astronauts selection, two Italians – two names we all know well – made it into the European contin- g e n t , L u c a P a r m i t a n o a n d S a m a n t h a C r i s t o - foretti. Everything else is current history. From Par- mitano's 2019 Soyuz MS-13 mission to Cristoforetti's r e c e n t d e p a r t u r e , I t a l i a n s c i e n c e a n d r e s e a r c h a r e finally enjoying a spotlight, quite literally, among the stars. T h e s k y i s t h e l i m i t : I t a l y ' s contribution to the space race FRANCESCA BEZZONE Samantha Cristoforetti, lovingly known in Italy as Astro-Samantha (Photo: Vicspacewalker/Dreamstime) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE TRADITIONS

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