MagISStra mission

Post-flight tour in ESTEC
ESA astronauts P.Nespoli, R.Vittori, along with their NASA colleagues G.Johnson, C.Coleman and A.Feustel, visit ESA-ESTEC in their post-flight tour for Exp. 26-27 (MagISStra mission) and STS-134 (DAMA mission).

MagISStra Mission Summary

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli landed back on Earth this morning to conclude his 159-day mission to the International Space Station. Paolo had been serving as the flight engineer for Expeditions 26 and 27 since December.
 
Paolo’s MagISStra mission, the third long mission by a European astronaut on the Station, came to end at 04:27 CEST (02:27 GMT) on the steppes of Kazakhstan as the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft fired its retrorockets for a soft landing. Paolo and crewmates Dmitri Kondratyev and Catherine Coleman boarded the Soyuz on Monday night and undocked from the Station’s nadir Rassvet port at 23:35 CEST (21:35 GMT). 

During more than five months in space, Paolo carried out an extensive research programme, ranging from nutritional tests and medical experiments to radiation monitoring and trying to understand the convective pattern generated in a fluid confined in a sphere – like lava under Earth’s crust.

Paolo also harvested numerous samples to be brought back to Earth by Space Shuttle and Soyuz.

His stay aboard the Station has been a particularly busy one. He participated in the docking of two cargo spacecraft: Europe’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle, Johannes Kepler, in February, and the second Japanese HII Transfer Vehicle in January.

Space Shuttle Discovery visited the Station in late February and early March, delivering the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module, which was left attached to the outpost. Discovery’s cargo included spares and the Robonaut humanoid robot.

Shuttle Endeavour docked just last week, bringing another Italian, ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori. This is the first time that two Italians were aboard the Station at the same time.

Paolo’s descent also marked the first time that a Soyuz spacecraft departed with a Shuttle still docked to the Station.
 

MagISStra and DAMA highlights

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) for a long-duration mission on 15 December 2010, serving as flight engineer for Expeditions 26 and 27. This is the third six-month mission by a European astronaut on the Station.

Paolo’s MagISStra mission came to end on 24 May 2011 at 04:27 CEST (02:27 GMT) on the steppes of Kazakhstan as the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft fired its retrorockets for a soft landing. His stay aboard the Station has been a particularly busy one.

He participated in the docking of two cargo spacecraft: Europe’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle, Johannes Kepler, in February, and the second Japanese HII Transfer Vehicle in January. He also welcomed crews from Soyuz TMA-21, STS-133 and STS-134 'DAMA' Mission, that included ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori.

'DAMA' mission ended on 1 June 2011, at 6:35 GMT, after a 16-day mission that added the pioneering experiment AMS-02 to the International Space Station.

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli landed back on Earth this morning to conclude his 159-day mission to the International Space Station. Paolo had been serving as the flight engineer for Expeditions 26 and 27 since December.
 
Paolo’s MagISStra mission, the third long mission by a European astronaut on the Station, came to end at 04:27 CEST (02:27 GMT) on the steppes of Kazakhstan as the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft fired its retrorockets for a soft landing. Paolo and crewmates Dmitri Kondratyev and Catherine Coleman boarded the Soyuz on Monday night and undocked from the Station’s nadir Rassvet port at 23:35 CEST (21:35 GMT). 

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli has come back to Earth with his crew mates Dimitri Kondratiev and Cady Coleman in a Soyuz capsule landing in the desert of Kazakhstan on 24 May 2011.

This marks the end of the third ESA long duration mission aboard the International Space Station.

Launched from Baikonur last 15 December Paolo Nespoli conducted scientific experiments and participated in the very busy activities in and around the ISS.

This video recalls these past months in space for the ESA astronaut.

More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/magisstra/index.html

 After eight weeks of exercises and classroom activities, 4000 children from more than 25
 cities worldwide concluded their ‘Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut’ challenge that promotes
 healthy nutrition and regular exercise.

 Mission X has helped pupils aged 8–12 years to understand the importance of staying fit for
 astronauts and children alike, in space as on Earth.

The efforts and the enthusiasm of the competing teams are highlighted by the hundreds of
 pictures, videos and texts that teachers have posted on the Mission X website at:
 www.trainlikeanastronaut.org.

An inflight call took place on 12 April 2011 with the ISS Expedition 27 crew and Euronews iTalk. 

The focus of this week’s i-talk, Euronews’ new programme presented by “Mr. Europe” Alex Taylor, is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s trip to space – the first ever manned space-travel.

Answering the viewers’ questions are the International Space Station’s current occupants: commander Dimitri Kondratyev, flight engineer Katie Colman, Paulo Nespoli, Andrei Samokutyaev, Ron Garan and Andrey Borisenko.

Find out how their experience is contributing to medical research, whether space tourism is just round the corner, and what happens to the human body when you spend time in space.

The Mission X inflight call which took place at The European Astronaut Centre on 30 March 2011 in English.

After eight weeks of exercises and classroom activities, 4000 children from more than 25 cities worldwide are about to conclude their ‘Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut’ challenge that promotes healthy nutrition and regular exercise.
 
Acrobatic space somersaults and climbing martian mountains are some of the fun activities – inspired by astronaut training – performed by children and teachers from Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and the USA.

Eighty-five lucky German children, representing their young European colleagues, were invited to the European Astronaut Centre, in Cologne, Germany, from where they asked the questions provided by all participating children to Paolo Nespoli and Catherine Coleman onboard the ISS on 30 March 2011.

After eight weeks of exercises and classroom activities, 4000 children from more than 25 cities worldwide are about to conclude their ‘Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut’ challenge that promotes healthy nutrition and regular exercise.
 
Acrobatic space somersaults and climbing martian mountains are some of the fun activities – inspired by astronaut training – performed by children and teachers from Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and the USA.

Eighty-five lucky German children, representing their young European colleagues, were invited to the European Astronaut Centre, in Cologne, Germany, from where they asked the questions provided by all participating children to Paolo Nespoli and Catherine Coleman onboard the ISS on 30 March 2011.

This is a video of the entire closing cermony which was in the German language.  The Inflight Call with the ISS is in English.

In-flight call from ESA-ESRIN, in Italy, on 4-4-2011. Paolo Nespoli talks to the italian media.
With ground imagery, in Italian.

Termination and disposal of the Greenhouse experiment.
Paolo Nespoli performs and comments the premature termination of the experiment, due to the growth of unwanted spores in the experiment container.

In-flight call from ESA-ESRIN, in Italy, on 4-4-2011. Paolo Nespoli talks to the italian media.
Translated in english.

In-Flight Call on 11 march 2011 at ALTEC in Torino, Italy.  Participants included S.Di Pippo (Director of Human Spaceflight, ESA), C.Ruggieri (ALTEC president), L.M.Quaglino (ALTEC CEO), ESA astronauts S.Cristoforetti and L.Parmitano, ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Version with english translation.

In-Flight Call on 11 march 2011 at ALTEC in Torino, Italy.  Participants included S.Di Pippo (Director of Human Spaceflight, ESA), C.Ruggieri (ALTEC president), L.M.Quaglino (ALTEC CEO), ESA astronauts S.Cristoforetti and L.Parmitano, ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Includes ground imagery.
The call is in Italian.

STS-133 and ISS crew joint news conference. This includes questions in italian for Paolo Nespoli asked by italian media (in italian).

A HD version of the Greenhouse Take Your Classroom to Space inflight Call on 17 February, 2011 with images from the four participating sites in France, Italy, Germany,  and Portugal.

ATV2 has docked and ingress has been completed.  This video is a hihglight of those activites.  From now on, ATV is a fully functional albeit temporary extension of the ISS, the vessel can start to fulfil its major mission objective – to provide services to the ISS.

Paolo Nespoli, ESA’s astronaut working and living on the Space Station, is sharing his experience with the world via a constant flow of beautiful photos and tweets.
 
Paolo has been in space now for over two months on his MagISStra mission, with a hectic schedule of working on experiments, doing International Space Station (ISS) housekeeping and maintenance, supporting the docking of two cargo craft and conducting robotic work, as well as daily training.

Cupola, with its seven big windows, is a unique place in the Space Station. From there, astronauts can see almost 180° to the Earth-facing side of the ISS.  Cupola has also turned an orbiting laboratory into a home. “When I have free time, even only 5 minutes, I just hover in Cupola looking down,” explains Paolo.
“It is amazing, because I find constantly something new. As the Station is moving very fast, the view is changing all the time and the lighting conditions, season, position of the Sun and the whole situation is never the same.”

This video shows some of the views that Paolo has seen as he describes the view seen from the Cupola.

MagISStra Mission Highlight video for the Greenhouse Take Your Classroom to Space event.

Greenhouse - Take Your Classroom to Space: In-flight Call

ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Erasmus Centre hosted the live in-flight call on 17 February 2011.  ESA connected students in four locations in Europe to the ISS to speak with Paolo Nespoli about the Greenhouse in Space.  The locations were Cite de l’espace in Toulouse France; ESA European Astronaut Centre, Cologne, Germany; ESA ESRIN, Frascati, Italy; Ciencia Viva in Lisbon Portugal.

The ‘Greenhouse in space’ project, proposed and conceived by ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight, is not only a scientific experiment but also an educational opportunity for schoolchildren aged between 12 and 14.

Paolo will use a specially-developed greenhouse in space to grow plants and make observations of the life cycle of a flowering plant. The schoolchildren will be able to follow this with their own experiment on the ground, using a similar greenhouse and the same species of plant.
 

Expedition 26 Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli used the station’s robotic arm to attach the unpiloted Japanese Kounotori2 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV2) to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station at 9:51 a.m. EST Thursday, 3 February 2011.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched HTV2 aboard an H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 12:37 a.m. (2:27 p.m. Japan time) on Saturday, 29 January 2011.

HTV2 is the second unpiloted cargo ship launched by JAXA to the station and will deliver more than four tons of food and supplies to the station and its crew members.

A pallet loaded with spare station parts was extracted from a slot in the cargo ship and attached to an experiment platform outside the Japanese Kibo module. Other cargo will be transferred internally to the station.

The cargo vehicle will be filled with trash, detached from the station and sent to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere at the end of March.

In-Flight Call on 26 January 2011 at the Italian Space Agency in Rome, Italy.  Participants included Simonetta Di Pippo (Director of Human Spaceflight, ESA) and Enrico Saggese (President of ASI). and ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Includes ground imagery.
The call is in Italian.

In-Flight Call on 26 January 2011 at the Italian Space Agency in Rome, Italy.  Participants included Simonetta Di Pippo (Director of Human Spaceflight, ESA), Enrico Saggese (President of ASI). and ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli.
The call is translated in English.

In-Flight Call on 26 January 2011 at the Italian Space Agency in Rome, Italy.  Participants included Simonetta Di Pippo (Director of Human Spaceflight, ESA) and Enrico Saggese (President of ASI). and ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli.
The call is in Italian.

In-Flight Call with the BBC World News and Paolo Nespoli on 12 January 2011.

Inflight call with Paolo Nespoli on 23-12-2010 from the Planetarium in Rome, Italy. With S.Di Pippo. In italian.

During the first three weeks of the MagISStra Mission, Paolo Nespoli has been busy working on science and maintenance of the International Space Station.   He has performed the first science sessions for NEUROSPAT, PASSAGES, and 3D Space.  He has worked in the Japanese Lab, KIBO on the MELFI facility and spent the holidays with this Expedition 26 / 27 crew members.  This video shows some of the activities that he has been doing on the ISS.

Inflight call with Paolo Nespoli during the TV show 'I Fatti Vostri' (RAIDUE), 6-1-2011. With Giancarlo Magalli and Massimo Sabbatini. In Italian.

On 23 December 2010, Paolo Nespoli spoke with public and media in Italian at the Planetarium in Rome for his first live in-flight call of the MagISStra Mission.

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli is on his way to the International Space Station with crewmates Dmitri Kondratyev and Catherine Coleman aboard their Soyuz spacecraft following liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 20:09:25 CET on 15 December 2010.
 
Twenty main rocket nozzles beneath the venerable Soyuz launcher came to life at 01:09:25 local time at the cosmodrome and Soyuz TMA-20 rose into sky. About nine minutes later, the spacecraft and its three passengers were in space, antennas and solar panels deployed, circling Earth every 90 minutes.

After circling the globe some 35 times for two days, the spacecraft docked on the russian MRM-1 module at 21:12 CET (20:12 GMT), on Friday, 17 December 2010.

So began MagISStra, Europe’s third long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). During his six-month mission, Paolo will serve as a flight engineer with Kondratyev and Coleman as members of Expeditions 26 and 27. Their return to Earth is planned for next May.