Umberto Guidoni (born 18 August 1954 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

) is an Italian astrophysicist, science writer and a former

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

astronaut, being the first European to visit the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

. He is a veteran of two

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

missions. He was also a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) from 2004 to 2009, with the Group of the European United Left ( GUE/NGL).

Biography

Career and spaceflights

Guidoni earned a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Rome ''La Sapienza'' in 1978 and worked in the

Italian Space Agency The Italian Space Agency ( it, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana; ASI) is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international enti ...

(ASI) as well as in the European Space Agency (ESA). One of his research projects was the Tethered Satellite System, which was part of the payload of the STS-46 mission. Guidoni trained as an alternate payload specialist for that mission and made his first spaceflight aboard the Space Shuttle ''Columbia''

STS-75 STS-75 was a 1996 NASA Space Shuttle mission, the 19th mission of the ''Columbia'' orbiter. Crew Allen, Hoffman, Nicollier and Chang-Díaz had previously been members of the STS-46 crew, which had flown the TSS-1 experiment in 1992. Mission ...

in 1996, which included the second flight of the TSS system (TSS-1R). In 2001, Guidoni participated in the Space Shuttle's

STS-100 STS-100 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Endeavour''. STS-100 launch on 19 April 2001, and installed the ISS Canadarm2 robotic arm. Crew Mission highlights The highest priori ...

mission, being the first European on board

(ISS).

On that flight, the Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' carried the ''Raffaello'' Multi-Purpose Logistics Module for its maiden flight as well as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), the Canadian robotic arm used extensively to assemble the ISS.

ESA career

In September 2001, Guidoni was assigned to ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) as crew support for the payloads to be developed for the Columbus Laboratory. ''Columbus'' and its payloads are the European contribution to the scientific research performed on board the International Space Station. He retired from active astronaut status in June 2004.

Member of the European Parliament

In June 2004 Guidoni was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, in the Group of the European United Left (GUE/NGL). He was a member of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), and substitute of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), and the Temporary Committee on Climate Change. He has been rapporteur for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Innovation. He also proposed the amendment 16 to protect the freedom of the press from the strict application of the EU directive ( IPRED2) on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights. Guidoni joined the

Party of Italian Communists The Party of Italian Communists ( it, Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, PdCI) was a communist party in Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located i ...

(PdCI) around 2004. He led a tendency within PdCI called ' Unite the Left'. Guidoni left PdCI in 2009.

Present activity

In 2007 was the speaker of the radio program entitled “From the Sputnik to the Shuttle” (the series "At 8 in the evening" by Radio Rai 2), in which he retraced the main steps of the Space Era. In 2009, he presented another cycle of the same series where he narrated the epic history of the Apollo lunar missions. Starting from this program, in 2011, was published the book “From the Earth to the Moon”. Guidoni is involved in popularizing science and organizes events related to space. He has written articles and books including books for children such as "Martino on Mars", "Astrolibro" and the most recent published in 2019: "Voglio la LUNA" and "Guida per Giovani Astronauti".

Honors

On 15 April 1996, Guidoni was nominated Commendatore dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking ...

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (; 9 September 1918 – 29 January 2012) was the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1992, and was close to the centr ...

, President of Italy. On 11 May 2001, he was appointed Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana by

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (; 9 December 1920 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian politician and banker who was the prime minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and the president of Italy from 1999 to 2006. Biography Education Ciampi was born i ...

, President of Italy. For his first orbital flight (

) in 1996, Guidoni also received the NASA Space Flight Medal A second ''Space Flight Medal'' was awarded after his second space flight of 2001 (

). For his achievements in space, Guidoni received the

NASA Exceptional Service Medal The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, ae ...

in 2002. The asteroid 10605 GuidoniJPL Small Bodies Database
/ref> discovered by V. Giuliani e F. Manca on 1996.

References

External links

Personal site of Umberto Guidoni

ESA profile page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guidoni, Umberto 1954 births Living people Astronaut-politicians Italian astronauts Sapienza University of Rome alumni MEPs for Italy 2004–2009 21st-century Italian politicians Space Shuttle program astronauts