Umberto Guidoni Quotations

And the first flight of the tether satellite happened in '92, and I was the backup on that flight.

I was, I remember, I still remember when the first time I pointed the telescope at the sky and I saw Saturn with the rings. It was a beautiful image.

And then my chance really happened in 1996 when we added the second flight of the tether satellite.

But, what we need to get out of the first EVA is to have the arm completely unfolded and powered so that they can keep the temperature under control. That will really the call of the first EVA.

And not only that but... when the station is completed, there will be an international crew made of astronauts coming from different cultural experiences, speaking different languages, but working together for a common goal.

For the first time in history all the major countries in the world are pushing together to reach this goal... building something in space that is really for all humankind.

And just when we were at the end of our design process there was the news that the Italian government and the U.S. government had signed an agreement to fly the first Italian astronaut on that flight.

When this space walk will be completed, then the arm will be fully operational and ready for the next activity that will be pretty much the testing, the first flight testing of the space station arm.

I remember; I was 15 years old when Neil Armstrong put feet in the moon.

Also we will be carrying food and clothes for the Expedition Two crew. And as well as spare parts for the EVA that will be conducted from the station in the following months.

And so, in case we have contingencies and things that we cannot accomplish within the duration of the space walk, we have a buffer, I mean, in order to be able to complete the... what we want to accomplish.

And since Italy was involved in the space station as well as signed an agreement with NASA. And when the possibility to enter the 1996 Mission Specialist class.

And so, I will be probably, since I am not involved in all the activity, I will have some spare time to devote to document all this busy part of the flight.

And then I graduate two years later, in 1998, with my class. And, since then I've been here in Houston for training basically. And I was very happy to be assigned to this mission.

At that point, there will be the handover between the shuttle arm and the station arm so that the shuttle arm will take the cradle and put it into the cargo bay.

During that space walk there will be some repositioning of the power so that the arm can be fully controlled by the robotic station that is in the Lab.

I started this whole endeavor really. And at the beginning we had the selection in Italy. And that was pretty much among people that had held previous experience in that particular satellite. So, I was in that, in a good position then.

In particular, this arm has 7 degrees-of-freedom that makes the overall motion of the arm very complex so that, before you start driving the arm, you should be very familiar with all the position it can get.

Well, we have two major goals. The most important one is to get the station arm on board the station, because that's this really milestone in the space station building since from now on they will be using this arm to continue building the space station.

Basically checking the, some of the spec on the computer and also using the visual cue that we have in order to help him in driving the arm.

Well, when I was a teenager, my uncle used to give me science book, and he also gave me the first telescope. And I started to look at the stars.

And this will be a very delicate task because, of course, again we are moving a very massive object and we are moving against this station.

Because, of course, almost all of the rest of the crewmembers will be pretty busy with this, with the activity of the rendezvous and docking.

And since this is a difficult position to reach, we will be using the arm as a support for one of the EVA crewmembers in order to reach this position.