21 Facts About Luca Parmitano

Luca Parmitano was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009.

Luca Parmitano is divorced and has two daughters with his ex-wife.

Luca Parmitano is an active scuba diver and enjoys snowboarding, skydiving, weight training and swimming.

Luca Parmitano graduated from the Liceo Scientifico Statale "Galileo Galilei" in Catania, Italy, in 1995.

Luca Parmitano spent a year as an exchange student at Mission Viejo High School in Mission Viejo, California in the United States with AFS Intercultural Programs.

Luca Parmitano completed basic training with the US Air Force at the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas in the United States in 2001.

Luca Parmitano completed the Tactical Leadership Programme in Florennes, Belgium, in 2005.

In July 2009, Luca Parmitano received a master's degree in experimental flight test engineering at the Institut Superieur de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace, in Toulouse, France, as part of the test pilot formation at EPNER, the French test pilot school in Istres.

In 2007 Luca Parmitano was awarded the Medaglia d'Argento al Valore Aeronautico by the President of the Italian Republic after safely landing his AMX in an emergency due to a bird strike.

Luca Parmitano is a Colonel in the Italian Air Force and an Astronaut of the European Space Agency.

Luca Parmitano has logged more than 2000 hours flying time, is qualified on more than 20 types of military aircraft and has flown over 40 types of aircraft.

Luca Parmitano was the 32nd Wing Electronic Warfare Officer.

In May 2009, Luca Parmitano was selected as an ESA astronaut as part of the 2009 class.

In July 2015, Luca Parmitano became an aquanaut when he served as commander of the NEEMO 20 crew.

In 2016, Luca Parmitano took part in the first ESA PANGAEA mission, alongside Matthias Maurer and Pedro Duque.

In May 2017, Luca Parmitano took part in the CAVES eXpedition One, carried out in the extreme environments of some hot caves in Sicily.

Luca Parmitano's mission is called Volare, which means "to fly" in Italian and is reminiscent of a very famous song by the Italian singer Domenico Modugno.

In May 2013 Luca Parmitano partnered with his 15-year-old mentee Abigail Harrison to have her serve as his Earth liaison during his mission on Expedition 36 and Expedition 37.

Luca Parmitano returned to Earth on 11 November 2013 aboard Soyuz TMA-09M.

Luca Parmitano became the first DJ in space on 13 August 2019, when he played a set of electronic music from the ISS for a music festival audience in Ibiza.

Luca Parmitano conducted the spacewalks to repair AMS together with NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan.