Paolo Nespoli

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Our Team | Paolo Nespoli

About Paolo Nespoli

Paolo Nespoli is member of Argotec’s board of directors.

He was born on April 6, 1957, in Milan. He grew up in Verano Brianza and attended the “Paolo Frisi” Scientific High School in Desio, graduating in 1977. That year, he enrolled in the Military Parachuting School in Pisa, earning the qualification of non-commissioned officer and parachuting instructor. In 1980, he joined the Italian Special Forces as a paratrooper commando with the 9th Paratroopers Assault Regiment Col Moschin.

1982

In 1982, he was deployed to Lebanon with the Multinational Peace Force, remaining there until 1984. In 1988, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic University of New York, followed by a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1989. He also obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florence in 1990.

1978 - 1984

From 1978 to 1984, Nespoli was hired by the European Space Agency’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, as an engineer responsible for astronaut training. He developed the Astronaut Training Database and in 1995 was assigned to Noordwijk, Netherlands, at the ESA’s Estec center for the Euromir project. There, he led the team managing computers used by the Russian space station Mir.

1996

In 1996, Nespoli moved to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, joining the SpaceFlight Training Division to support the International Space Station’s crew. In the summer of 1998, he was selected as an astronaut by the Italian Space Agency and integrated into the European Astronaut Corps (EAC) of ESA. He also joined NASA’s 17th class of astronauts.

Qualified as a Mission Specialist for the Space Shuttle, Nespoli became an International Space Station Operator in 2000 and a Space Shuttle robotic arm operator in 2001. After completing advanced extravehicular activity training, he was assigned to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia in 2004 for Soyuz spacecraft training.

2006

In June 2006, he joined the Space Shuttle mission STS-120, which took place from October 23 to November 7, 2007, to build the International Space Station. On November 19, 2007, Nespoli was appointed Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In November 2008, he was assigned to the long-duration MagiSStra mission, which involved over two years of training in the United States and Russia.