Umberto Guidoni (born 18 August 1954 in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

) is an Italian astrophysicist, science writer and a former ESA

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

, being the first European to visit the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. 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 federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, 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. ...

missions. He was also a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(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 (; 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 entities who are active in aerospac ...

(ASI) as well as in the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(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 orbiter. Crew Crew seat assignments Mission objective Tethered Satellite System The primary objective of STS-75 was to carry the Tethered Satellite System Reflight (TS ...

in 1996, which included the second flight of the TSS system (TSS-1R). In 2001, Guidoni participated in the Space Shuttle's STS-100 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 The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, alth ...

(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 two 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 ...

, 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 (, PdCI) was a communist party in Italy established in October 1998 by splinters from the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC). The split was led by Armando Cossutta, founder and early leader of the PRC, who oppos ...

(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".

Honours

On 15 April 1996, Guidoni was appointed Commander of the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (; 9 September 1918 – 29 January 2012) was an Italian politician who served as President of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1 ...

, President of Italy. On 11 May 2001, he was promoted to Grand Officer of the

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (; 9 December 1920 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian politician, statesman and banker who was the President of Italy from 1999 to 2006 and the Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994. A World War II veteran, C ...

, President of Italy. For his first orbital flight (

) in 1996, Guidoni also received the

NASA Space Flight Medal The NASA Space Flight Medal is a decoration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to its statutes, it is awarded "for significant achievement or service during individual participation as a civilian or military astronau ...

A second ''Space Flight Medal'' was awarded after his second space flight of 2001 ( STS-100). 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, a ...

in 2002. The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

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 Space Shuttle program astronauts