Umberto Guidoni

Umberto Guidoni

Country:	Italy
Organization:	ASI / ESA
selected on	February 1989
Calls:	2 space flights
Start of the first space flight:	February 22, 1996
Landing of the last space flight:	May 1, 2001
Time in space:	27d 15h 12min
retired on	June 2004
Space flights
STS-75 (1996) STS-100 (2001)

Umberto Guidoni (born August 18, 1954 in Rome , Italy ) is an Italian physicist , former astronaut and member of the European Parliament .

Life

Guidoni was born in the Italian capital Rome, where he also spent his entire childhood. After graduating from high school in 1973, he enrolled at the La Sapienza University in Rome, studying physics and later astrophysics. In 1978 he was awarded a doctorate (with distinction) in astrophysics. He then received a scholarship from the state National Committee for Nuclear Energy and worked in the field of thermonuclear fusion. In 1983 he accepted a position as a scientist in the National Committee for Renewable Energies ENEA (Ente Nazionale Energie Alternative) for one year. In the committee for solar energy he was responsible for the development of solar collectors.

In 1984 he moved to the Institute for Space Physics IFSI (Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario) of the National Research Council CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), where he developed the experiment RETE (Research on Electrodynamic Tether Effects) for the later TSS (Tethered Satellite System) .

When the US space transporter was constructed in the early 1970s, it was the two Italian scientists Professor Colombo and Doctor Grossi who suggested using a satellite on a leash on the shuttle. And in 1984 the US ( NASA ) and Italian ( ASI ) space agencies signed an agreement that provided for the construction of such a system: the TSS project was born.

From 1985 Guidoni developed the data processing system for RETE and helped to set up a plasma chamber at IFSI. This made it possible to simulate the electrodynamic phenomena of a connected satellite. Three years later he was appointed project scientist for RETE, where he was responsible for integrating the experiment into the TSS.

He is married to Mariarita Bartolacci from Milan. The couple has a son.

Astronaut activity

Guidoni had contacted immediately when the Italian space agency ASI was looking for new candidates as payload experts for a shuttle flight with the TSS (the first Italian TSS group had already been presented in autumn 1984). The selection began in February 1989. By the end of the year, four contenders remained: C. Batalli-Cosmovici, U. Guidoni, F. Malerba and F. Rossitto. Rossitto left the team in 1989 to take up a position at ESA's European Astronaut Center in Cologne. The other three began in January 1990 with her training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston ( Texas ).

At the end of September 1991, NASA nominated Franco Malerba as payload specialist for the first TSS flight on STS-46 and Guidoni as his replacement. During this mission, experiments with the tethered satellite TSS-1 were to be carried out in orbit , but the rope connecting the satellite to the space shuttle got jammed, so that the desired distance was not reached. However, the satellite could be caught again. Guidoni was one of the experts accompanying the experiment in the ground station during this mission.

The experiment was to be repeated almost four years later. This time Umberto Guidoni was deployed and started on February 22, 1996 on board the Columbia space shuttle for the STS-75 mission . Although this time the rope broke shortly before the planned length of 20 kilometers was reached, valuable data was obtained. It turned out that the generation of energy by a tethered satellite was far more effective than theoretical models had predicted.

From 1996 to 1998 Guidoni was trained as a mission specialist together with the 16th astronaut group of NASA. In March 1998 he was assigned to the newly created astronaut corps of the European Space Agency (ESA).

For his second space flight, Guidoni took off on April 19, 2001 with the space shuttle Endeavor for the STS-100 mission . This flight led to the International Space Station (ISS) and used the Italian Raffaello logistics module for the first time . Guidoni was the first Western European visitor on the ISS.

Member of the European Parliament

Umberto Guidoni at a Sinistra e Libertà event

Guidoni ended his career as a space traveler in favor of a political career when he was elected to the European Parliament on the list of Italian Communists in June 2004 . He is a member of the GUE / NGL group and is a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy , the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Delegation for relations with the United States. He is also a substitute member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Delegation for relations with Japan.

Eponyms

In 2001 the asteroid (10605) Guidoni was named after him.

Web links

Commons : Umberto Guidoni - collection of images, videos and audio files

Guidonis Homepage (Italian)

Entry on Umberto Guidoni in the European Parliament 's database of deputies

supporting documents