TALIAN astronaut Luca Parmitano is hoping to bring a taste of his homeland to the Artemis III mission he will pilot near Earth in 2027 to test two lunar modules. The menu for the Artemis II mission in April featured Texas brisket and tortillas for the Orion spacecraft’s crew — and a jar of Italian sweet treat Nutella was also seen floating by during a live broadcast from space.
“I do expect something Italian to show up on the menu, and I don’t even have to bring it up because Italian food is a treasure of UNESCO,” Parmitano told AFP Tuesday, adding “everybody wants some Italian food”. That’s not all the former Italian Air Force colonel brings to the table for the Artemis III — part of a series of missions geared toward returning humans to the Moon, perhaps as soon as 2028.
Selected as an astronaut by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009, Parmitano has completed two missions aboard the International Space Station, where he completed complex spacewalks — including a near-fatal incident when his helmet began filling with water due to a failure in the suit’s cooling system. As the mission’s lead pilot, Parmitano will share responsibility with commander Randy Bresnik. “We are both test pilots, and the spacecraft needs a crew of two to fly it, so we share the responsibilities,” Parmitano said. “I feel honoured that I was chosen for this role,” he said. “It was unexpected because I didn’t know that it was in the run for that position.”
AFP
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