Luca Parmitano

Education

Parmitano finished high school at Liceo Scientifico Statale "Galileo Galilei" in Catania in 1995, after spending 1993 as an exchange student at Mission Viejo High School in California. He earned a master's in political sciences from the University of Naples Federico II in 1999, writing his thesis on international law. In 2000 he graduated from the Italian Accademia Aeronautica in Pozzuoli. He completed basic training at the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas in 2001, and a JCO/CAS course with USAFE in Sembach, Germany, in 2002.

In 2003 he qualified as an Electronic Warfare Officer at ReSTOGE in Pratica di Mare, Italy. He finished the Tactical Leadership Programme in Florennes, Belgium, in 2005. In July 2009 he earned a master's in experimental flight test engineering at ISAE in Toulouse, France, as part of test pilot training at EPNER.

Career

Parmitano has logged over 2000 flight hours, qualified on more than 20 military aircraft types, and flown over 40 types. After undergraduate pilot training in 2001, he flew the AMX with the 13th Squadron, 32nd Wing in Amendola, Italy, from 2001 to 2007, earning qualifications like Combat Ready, Four Ship Leader, and Mission Commander/Package Leader. Within the 13th Squadron he served as Chief of Training Section and Commander of the 76th Flight, and was the 32nd Wing Electronic Warfare Officer. In 2007 the Italian Air Force selected him to become a test pilot, and he qualified as an Experimental Test Pilot at EPNER.

In ESA

Parmitano was chosen as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. In 2014 he became a cavenaut in ESA CAVES training alongside Scott Tingle, Alexander Mirsurkin, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and Matthias Maurer. In July 2015 he commanded the NEEMO 20 crew. In 2016 he joined the first ESA PANGAEA mission with Matthias Maurer and Pedro Duque.

In May 2017 he took part in CAVES eXpedition One in hot caves in Sicily. In February 2011 he was assigned as flight engineer to Expedition 36/37, launching on Soyuz TMA-09M on 28 May 2013 and arriving at the ISS on 29 May; his mission was called Volare. In May 2013 he partnered with his mentee Abigail Harrison to act as his Earth liaison during Expeditions 36 and 37. On 9 July 2013 he became the first Italian to spacewalk, performing an EVA with Chris Cassidy to install power cables, retrieve MISSE-8 samples, and do maintenance tasks.

During that EVA he rode the Mobile Servicing System to install radiator grapple bars from SpaceX CRS-2. In June 2026 he was announced as pilot on Artemis III.

Did You Know?

• Asteroid 37627 Lucaparmitano is named after him.
• He was awarded the Medaglia d'Argento al Valore Aeronautico in 2007 for safely landing his AMX after a bird strike.
• During his second EVA on 16 July 2013, the spacewalk was cut short after 1 hour 32 minutes because his helmet filled with water.
• He became the first DJ in space on 13 August 2019, playing electronic music from the ISS for an Ibiza festival audience.