The launch has been set for Saturday July 20 and it is no coincidence that it took place on the fiftieth anniversary of the landing on the moon. The name of the mission that is bringing astronauts to the ISS - the international space station for six months is philosophical - Beyond, that is to say Over, Beyond and promises to be one of the most intense and ambitious research programs to be carried out on the Space Station developed by ESA, the European Space Agency. On board the Soyuz capsule, the Russian cosmonaut Alexandr Skvortsov and the American Andrew Morgan, but above all our Luke Parmitano, for the second time in orbit after Flying (2013). In the second part of the mission Parmitano will be in command, the first Italian and third European to have this role.
The launch took place at 18:28 on 20 July. The ESA informs that everything happened regularly. “It's fantastic to be here”, said Parmitano, addressing everyone, as soon as he arrived on board the station. Then he added: "Thanks to Italy".
The six-hour, four-orbit flight to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft will be Luca Parmitano's second spaceflight, Alexander Skvortsov's third and Drew Morgan's first.
EXPERIMENTS AND "WALKS" ON A MISSION
During the six months of his stay on the ISS, Parmitano will conduct operations both inside and outside the Station and will devote a good part of his time to scientific activity. In particular, he will be busy following over 200 experiments, 6 of which developed by the Italian Space Agency: NUTRISS, Acoustic Diagnostics, Amyloid Aggregation, LIDAL, Xenogriss and Mini-EUSO. The experiments concern various research sectors: human physiology, biochemistry, biology, technological demonstration, Earth observation. They range from the observation of changes in body composition (fat-mass) during long-term spaceflight to the possible repercussions on astronauts' hearing, the impact of radiation during their permanence in space, the growth of tadpoles in severity.
LASAGNE AND THE STATUE OF A CHILD
The statue of a child and the lasagna There are few objects that AstroLuca has decided to bring on board. “A friend gave me a statue of a young sculptor: it is a stone statuette representing a newborn baby”. “I really liked the idea of having a very small child on board” and “I am convinced that art has its extraordinary value. One day – he noted – it would be appropriate to bring astronauts and poets to the Space Station”. As for food, after the success of the typically Italian menu of his first mission, Luca Parmitano has decided to confirm it: "Lasagna, parmigiana and tiramisu are now inevitable: my colleagues would have liked me if I hadn't done it".
(Last update: 09:08 on 21 July).
