ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano during a Soyuz TMA spacecraft training session at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Russia on 27 November 2012.

Luca is part of the Soyuz TMA-07M back-up crew, with NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin. The prime crew will be launched in December 2012 to the International Space Station.

Luca is assigned engineer on a long duration mission to the International Space Station planned for 2013.