Volare

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano will come back to Earth this 11 November aboard a Soyuz capsule with his crewmates Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg.

Landing is currently scheduled at 02h50 GMT in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Parmitano, Yurchikin and Nyberg were launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 28 May 2013 and since then were aboard the International Space Station.

The Italian astronaut was the first of ESA’s new generation of astronauts to fly into space, serving as flight engineer. Luca’s mission, called “Volare”, was provided through an agreement with Italy’s ASI space agency.

This six-month mission in the ISS was ESA’s fifth long-duration Space Station mission. During his 166 days in space, Luca took part in several ESA experiments covering many scientific areas, from human physiology and biology to fluid physics and materials science. His busy schedule involved two spacewalks to install new equipment and retrieve experiments outside the orbital outpost. His second spacewalk had to be aborted because of water leaking in his helmet.

Most of Luca’s experiments were performed in Europe’s Columbus laboratory, a weightless research laboratory used for research designed to benefit life on Earth and future space missions.

This video presents the highlights of the ESA astronaut’s journey in space. It includes new statements from Luca Parmitano aboard the ISS recalling his mission.