Luca Parmitano

Luca Parmitano (born in Paternò, Italy, 27 September 1976) is an Italian astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA). The astronauts work on missions at the International Space Station. He was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. Parmitano is also a Major and pilot for the Italian Air Force. Parmitano is the youngest astronaut to undertake a long-duration mission, at 36 years and eight months old on the launch day of his mission.

Background
Parmitano considers Catania his hometown. He is married to Kathy Dillow and has two daughters. He is an active scuba diver and enjoys snowboarding, skydiving, weight training and swimming. Other interests include reading and listening to water music.

Education
Parmitano graduated from the Liceo Scientifico Statale `Galileo Galilei´ in Catania, Italy, in 1995. Parmitano spent a year (1993) as an exchange student in USA with AFS Intercultural Programs.

In 1999, he completed a bachelor's degree in political sciences at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, with a thesis on international law. In 2000, he graduated with Sparviero IV academic course, from the Italian Accademia Aeronautica, in Pozzuoli, Italy.

Parmitano completed basic training with the U.S. Air Force at the Euro-Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training in Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, US, in 2001. He completed the JCO/CAS course with the USAFE in Sembach, Germany, in 2002.

In 2003, he qualified as Electronic Warfare Officer at the ReSTOGE in Pratica di Mare, Italy. He completed the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) in Florennes, Belgium, in 2005.

In July 2009, Parmitano completed a master’s degree in experimental flight test engineering at the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE), in Toulouse, France.

Special honours
In 2007 Parmitano was awarded the Medaglia al Valore Aeronautico d'Argento (Decoration for Aeronautical Valour in Silver) by the President of the Italian Republic after safely landing his AMX in an emergency due to a bird strike.

Career
Parmitano is a Major in the Italian Air Force and an Astronaut of the European Space Agency. He has logged more than 2000 hours flying time, is qualified on more than 20 types of military aircraft (both fixed-wing and rotary-wing) and has flown over 40 types of aircraft.

Following completion of undergraduate pilot training in 2001, Parmitano flew the AMX aircraft with the 13th Squadron, 32nd Wing in Amendola, Italy, from 2001 to 2007. During that time, he obtained all the qualifications on that aircraft, including Combat Ready, Four Ship Leader, and Mission Commander/Package Leader.

Within the 13th Squadron, he served as Chief of Training Section and Commander of the 76th Flight. He was also the 32nd Wing Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO).

In 2007, he was selected by the Italian Air Force to become a test pilot and qualified as Experimental Test Pilot at EPNER, the French test pilot school in Istres.

in May 2009, Parmitano was selected as an ESA astronaut. In February 2011, he was assigned as a flight engineer to Expedition 36/37 (a long-duration mission to the International Space Station) which launched aboard Soyuz TMA-09M on 28 May 2013 and arrived at the ISS on May 29. His mission is called Volare, which means "to fly" in Italian and is reminiscent of a very famous song by the Italian singer Domenico Modugno.

On July 9th 2013, he became the first Italian to take part in a spacewalk as he and Chris Cassidy conducted an EVA out of the ISS' quest airlock to install power-cables, retrieve material research samples (MISSE-8) and accomplish a number of maintenance tasks. During the EVA, Parmitano also got to ride on the ISS' Mobile Servicing System for the installation of a couple of radiator grapple bars previously flown up on SpaceX' CRS-2 mission. The EVA was part of preparations for the new Russian multipurpose module planned to replace the Pirs docking compartment by the end of 2013.

His second EVA was aborted after only 1 hour and 32 minutes, when the helmet of his Extravehicular Mobility Unit suit started filling with water. Water in his helmet posed the danger of drowning and made his return to the airlock even more difficult, as Orbital Sunset had occurred just before he started to return. Parmitano returned to Earth on 11 November 2013 aboard Soyuz TMA-09M.