Umberto Guidoni
Encyclopedia
Umberto Guidoni is an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 politician and a former ESA astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

. He is a veteran of two NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 space shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

 missions. He was a Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

 (MEP) from 2004 to 2009.

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
Italian Space Agency
The Italian Space Agency is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy...

 (ASI) as well as in the European Space Agency
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

 (ESA). One of his research projects was the Tethered Satellite System, which was part of the payload of the STS-46
STS-46
STS-46 was a NASA space shuttle mission using orbiter Atlantis and launched on 31 July 1992 at 9:56:48 am EDT.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter landing with payload: **Payload: *Perigee: *Apogee:...

 mission. Guidoni trained as an alternate payload specialist for this mission and made his first spaceflight aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia STS-75
STS-75
STS-75 was a United States Space Shuttle mission, the 19th mission of the Columbia orbiter.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass: payload*Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 28.5°*Period: 90.5 min-Mission objective:...

 in 1996, which included another test of the TSS system.

In 2001, Guidoni participated in the Space Shuttle's STS-100
STS-100
STS-100 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour. STS-100 installed the ISS Canadarm2 robotic arm.- Crew :- Mission parameters :* Mass:** Orbiter liftoff:...

 mission, being the first European on board the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 (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
European Space Research and Technology Centre
The European Space Research and Technology Centre 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....

 (ESTEC) as crew support for the payloads to be developed for the Columbus
Columbus (ISS module)
Columbus is a science laboratory that is part of the International Space Station and is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency ....

 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 parliament

In June 2004 Guidoni was elected to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

, 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.

Since 2010 he is the national responsible for education of the left party Left Ecology Freedom.

Honors

On 15 April 1996, Guidoni was nominated Commendatore dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana by Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro , Italian politician and magistrate, was the ninth President of the Italian Republic from 1992 to 1999, and is currently a senator for life...

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

In 1996, Guidoni also received the NASA Space Flight Medal for his first orbital flight (STS-75
STS-75
STS-75 was a United States Space Shuttle mission, the 19th mission of the Columbia orbiter.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass: payload*Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 28.5°*Period: 90.5 min-Mission objective:...

). http://nasapeople.nasa.gov/awards/medals/sfm.jpg A second NASA Space Flight Medal was awarded after his second space flight of 2001 (STS-100
STS-100
STS-100 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour. STS-100 installed the ISS Canadarm2 robotic arm.- Crew :- Mission parameters :* Mass:** Orbiter liftoff:...

). http://nasapeople.nasa.gov/awards/medals/sfm.jpg

In 2002, he received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for his activity in the space program. http://nasapeople.nasa.gov/awards/medals/esm.jpg

The asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 10605 Guidoni
10605 Guidoni
10605 Guidoni is a main-belt asteroid discovered on November 3, 1996 by V. Giuliani and F. Manca at Sormano.- External links :* *...

 discovered by V. Giuliani e F. Manca on 1996. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=10605+Guidoni

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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