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Roberto VITTORI

Flight Engineer 1 of Soyuz TM-34
Lieutenant Colonel in the Italian Air Force,
ESA astronaut, Italy

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: October 15, 1964, Viterbo, Italy.

EDUCATION: Graduated from the Italian Air Force Academy in 1989. Completed basic training with the US Air Force at Reese Air Force Base in Texas, US, in 1990. Graduated from the US Navy Test Pilot School in 1995. Completed the Italian Air Force's Accident Prevention course (Guidonia A.F.B., Italy) and Accident Investigation course (Kirtland A.F.B., New Mexico, US) between 1996 and 1997.

FAMILY STATUS: married.
Wife - Valeria Vittori.
Sons - Eduardo and Davido, born 1993 and 1996.

AWARDS AND RANKS: Academic award for completion of training at Reese Air Base, Texas. Honorary student of the Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. Honorary student of the US Flight Safety School, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Long Service medal from Italian Air Force (1997).

HOBBIES: soccer, jogging, swimming, reading.

WORK EXPERIENCE: From 1991 to 1994 he flew Tornado GR-1 aircraft as a member of squadron 155, regiment 50, Piacenza, Italy. During that period he completed training on in-flight refueling both during daytime and at night and was assigned to be a formation leader.
In 1995 he completed his training in US Air Force test pilot school. Then, till 1998, he served in the Italian Test Center as a pilot involved in the development of a new European airplane Eurofighter 2000. From 1996 to 1998 he was a national representative in the research and development program for air-to-air missiles.
In 1997 he enrolled in US Air Force flight safety school and during the period of 1997 to 1998 he served as a regimental flight safety officer at the Italian Flight Center. In addition to this, he taught aerodynamics within the framework of the Italian Air Force course on Accident Investigation.
He has logged more than 2000 hours in different aircraft, including F-104, GR-1 Tornado, F-18, AMX, M-2000, G-222 and P-180.
In July 1998 he was selected as an astronaut by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in cooperation with ESA, and one month later he joined the European Astronaut Corps.
In August 1998 he was relocated to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for participation in a training program for Shuttle and ISS missions, where he was trained as a mission specialist.
In August 2001 he arrived at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center to start his training as Flight Engineer 1 of Soyuz TM third visiting mission to ISS. This is his first space mission.

April 2002.
Based on materials from Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center