Portal:Space exploration/Biography/Week 24 2007
Roberto Vittori (Viterbo, October 15, 1964) is an ESA astronaut from Italy. He has logged over 1700 hours in over 40 different aircraft to include F-104, Tornado GR1, F-18, AMX, M-2000, G.222 and P-180.
He became the first European astronaut to visit the International Space Station twice. From April 25 to May 5, 2002, Roberto Vittori participated in the Soyuz TM-34 taxi-flight and on April 15, 2005, he participated in a second taxi-flight, Soyuz TMA-6, returning to Earth on April 24 in the Soyuz TMA-5 capsule. He conducted experiments in upper limb fatigue in astronauts and germination of herbaceous plant seeds for possible space nutrition.