The third ATV, to be launched to the ISS in early 2012, is named after famous Italian physicist and spaceflight pioneer Edoardo Amaldi.

The Italian space agency, ASI, proposed naming ATV-3 after the Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi (5 September 1908 – 5 December 1989).

"He started working in nuclear physics with Enrico Fermi, did pioneering work in the field of cosmic rays and in the new field of particle physics, becoming an Italian reference character in nuclear science," said Enrico Saggese, President of ASI.

"Amaldi was one of the few who in the post-war years prompted action ultimately leading to the founding of ESRO, and later ESA."

Father of Italian space research

Edoardo Amaldi

Edoardo Amaldi was a leading figure in Italian science in the 20th century, particularly in fundamental experimental physics.

In Rome, in the 1930s, Amaldi was a member of a group of young Italian scientists: the Via Panisperna boys ('I ragazzi di Via Panisperna'), who, led by Enrico Fermi, made the famous discovery of slow neutrons, which later made possible the nuclear reactor.

He contributed to nuclear physics in the 1930s and 1940s and to cosmic rays and particle physics afterwards.

At the beginning of the 1950s, Amaldi was one of the founding fathers of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and from 1952 to 1954 he was Secretary General of CERN's provisional organisation.

He then became a pioneer in the experimental search for gravitational waves in the 1970s.

It is largely thanks to his drive that Italian physics emerged from the slump following the Second World War.

Amaldi's concern for peace, and his strong feeling for the responsible role that the scientific community should play in this respect, was always a natural complement to his unshakable belief in the open nature of science and the need for international cooperation.