Status: Active
9/27/1976 –
Nationality: Italian
Type: Government
First Flight: 5/28/2013
Last Flight: 7/20/2019
Luca Parmitano (born 27 September 1976 in Paternò, Sicily) is an Italian engineer and astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA). The astronauts work on missions at the International Space Station. He was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. Parmitano is also a Lieutenant Colonel and pilot for the Italian Air Force. Parmitano is the youngest astronaut to undertake a long-duration mission, at 36 years and eight months old on the launch day of his mission.
European Space Agency - ESA
- Type: Multinational
- Abbreviation: ESA
- Administration: Director General: Josef Aschbacher
- Founded: 1975
- Country: AUT,BEL,CZE,DNK,FIN,FRA,DEU,GRC,IRE,ITA,LUZ,NLD,NOR,POL,PRT,ROU,ESP,SWE,CHE,GBR
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,000 employees.
ESA’s space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); the launch and operation of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana.
