12 Facts About Roberto Vittori

Roberto Vittori then trained as a test pilot in the United States.

In 1998, Roberto Vittori was selected by the ESA to join the European Astronaut Corps.

Roberto Vittori was the last non-American to fly aboard the Shuttle.

Roberto Vittori graduated from the Italian Air Force Academy in 1989 and trained in the United States.

Roberto Vittori flew the Tornado in the Italian Air Force before graduating in 1995 from the US Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland where he was the first in his class.

Roberto Vittori served at the Italian Test Center as a project pilot for the development of the new European aircraft, the EF2000.

Roberto Vittori has logged over 1700 hours in over 40 different aircraft including F-104, F-18, AMX, M-2000, G-222 and P-180.

From April 25 to May 5,2002, Roberto Vittori participated in the Soyuz TM-34 taxi-flight to the International Space Station, under an agreement between the Russian Rosaviakosmos, the Italian Space Agency, and the ESA.

On 15 April 2005 Roberto Vittori participated in a second taxi-flight to the International Space Station, Soyuz TMA-6, returning to Earth on 24 April in the Soyuz TMA-5 capsule.

Roberto Vittori became the first European astronaut to visit the ISS twice and conducted experiments in upper limb fatigue in astronauts and germination of herbaceous plant seeds for possible space nutrition.

Roberto Vittori was a mission specialist for NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-134 in 2011.

Roberto Vittori is the last non-US astronaut to have flown on the Shuttle.