Umberto Guidoni is an
ItalianItaly , 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
astronautAn 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
NASAThe 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 shuttleThe 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 ParliamentA 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 AgencyThe 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 AgencyThe 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-46STS-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-75STS-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-100STS-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 StationThe 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 CentreThe 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
ColumbusColumbus 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 ParliamentThe 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 ScalfaroOscar 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-75STS-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-100STS-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
asteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
10605 Guidoni10605 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