00:03Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok
00:07My guest today on 12-Minute SWIFT
00:09is Luca Parmitano, an Italian
00:11astronaut for the European Space
00:13Agency, who has been selected
00:15as the pilot of NASA's
00:18Artemis III mission,
00:19the next step toward the moon landing.
00:22Welcome Luca Parmitano
00:24and thank you for joining us.
00:26Thank you for having me.
00:26You were the first Italian commander
00:28on the International Space Station,
00:31the first Italian to ever perform
00:33a space walk,
00:34the first to ever organize a DJ set
00:37from space, and now
00:38you will be the first European
00:40to be part of an Artemis
00:43mission. Bring us back
00:44to the moment in which you received
00:46a call telling you that you were
00:48going to be part of this adventure.
00:51Yeah, that's
00:53really recent
00:54so it's really fresh in my mind
00:56and I don't think I will ever forget
00:57that moment because this mission
01:00was not at all on my horizon.
01:02I wasn't thinking about
01:04an assignment.
01:05I was focusing on another
01:08job that I was doing at the time,
01:10which was taking care of the crew on orbit
01:12on the International Space Station.
01:14So when I saw the phone number of the boss
01:18of the astronaut corps, I thought
01:19it was going to be something related to that.
01:21So when I answered the phone,
01:23my mind was about 400 kilometers
01:25above the Earth, thinking about
01:27the mission ongoing.
01:29And when he told me,
01:31hey Luca, we want you to be
01:34the pilot on the Artemis 3 mission,
01:38it didn't register for a second.
01:41And so I actually told my boss,
01:43I said, can you say that again?
01:45I wasn't in this group.
01:46And when he told me the exact same words,
01:48I was speechless,
01:50which is quite unusual for me.
01:52And I was really grateful.
01:55Right away, I was flooded
01:56with gratitude and the opportunity,
01:58but also I was humbled
02:00by the mission and the achievements
02:04that we needed to put in place
02:06in order to complete it successfully.
02:08The Artemis 3 mission
02:10is set to launch in 2027.
02:12It does not involve a moon landing.
02:15Instead, you will stay in low Earth orbit
02:18to test the technology essential
02:20for a future moon landing.
02:21How important is this mission
02:24for NASA's moon program?
02:26It's quite indispensable
02:27to lower the acceptable risk
02:30for the moon landing.
02:32You see, we are going to stay
02:34in Earth orbit because we don't know
02:38what the behavior of the spacecraft
02:39is going to be when performing
02:41very complex maneuvers,
02:43like rejoining close proximity operations
02:47and docking with two different spacecraft.
02:50None of this has been tested.
02:52None of this has been yet even simulated.
02:55We are working with the providers
02:56of the human landing systems
02:59to see how we can integrate our simulations.
03:03But we don't really know the behavior.
03:06So there is going to be an extensive
03:08involvement of the crew,
03:10the commander and the pilot.
03:11that we will perform both maneuvers
03:15in automatic systems,
03:17with automatic systems and manual systems.
03:19We will always shadow the automatic approach
03:23because it's something that hasn't been tested yet.
03:25So it's indispensable because once we achieve our mission,
03:32then we'll know that we can complete these actions
03:34and the next crew can focus on the actual landing
03:39on the surface of the moon.
03:40And NASA has described this mission
03:43as one of the most complex human space flights
03:47in recent history.
03:49But then what makes this mission so challenging
03:52from a technological but also from a human perspective?
03:56From a technological point of view
03:59and logistics point of view,
04:01we have three launches that have to happen
04:03in close proximity and from very different spacecraft.
04:09So the first one to launch is going to be the spacecraft
04:12from Blue Origin.
04:14It's the only one that can loiter for about 30 days,
04:18giving us a little bit of a buffer
04:20to launch with our SLS system
04:23and the Orion spacecraft.
04:25We have a limit of about 21 days of resources.
04:29So we have three weeks to launch,
04:32join up with the Blue Origin spacecraft,
04:34run the blue dock.
04:36We're going to have two astronauts going inside
04:39and those are the technological aspects that are really complex.
04:43And then we're going to separate, fly around,
04:47check any visible effect of the docking around the blue.
04:52And that's where we're going to have the third launch
04:53of the SpaceX vehicle.
04:57They're also going to go into Earth orbit
04:59and we're going to perform two rendezvous and docking again,
05:03manually and with automatic systems.
05:05So again, technology that's never been tested.
05:08And from a crew point of view, the spacecraft, the Orion,
05:12is only about eight or nine cubic meters.
05:15So people living in a close, in a small, close environment
05:19for up to three weeks in an environment
05:22that was not designed for the spacecraft
05:24because Orion is designed for deep space
05:27where conditions are completely different in Earth orbit.
05:29So there's a lot going on.
05:31There's a lot of training and a lot of thoughts going into
05:34what the mission is going to look like.
05:35And indeed about this training,
05:38how are you and then your other crew members
05:41getting ready for such an adventure?
05:44So our training is very complex
05:47and wonderfully different and varied.
05:49Only last week we were at Pax River,
05:52which is the United States Naval Test Pilot School.
05:55We were there refreshing our skills as test pilots and test engineers.
06:00We flew there with two aircraft
06:02just to get refreshed on some of the techniques.
06:05Then this week we started with several simulations.
06:09The first one in the mock-up with full suited
06:12and getting familiar with our spacesuits.
06:15And then yesterday, Andrea and I were in a six hour simulation
06:21dealing with several different malfunctions
06:24that we had to deal with together with the ground.
06:27These simulations are going to go on for the rest of the summer.
06:30And then in the fall, we're going to start working
06:33with the two landing systems so that we do complex simulation,
06:36both with the ground teams and the flight team.
06:38You sound indeed very busy.
06:41And you're going into orbit, as you said,
06:42with three other astronauts from NASA.
06:45On Earth, we know that the political relationship
06:48between the EU and the US has been very tense lately.
06:52How is it in orbit?
06:53It's completely different.
06:55We don't look at what's happening at political level.
06:59We are operators.
07:00We are used to, there's an expression,
07:04to work across the aisle.
07:05We are not interested in political backgrounds
07:11or political heritage or political views or religion.
07:17We are focused on exploration, on technology, on science.
07:22We like to build bridges, not walls.
07:25And so even though this is indeed a race with a political background
07:31to go back to the moon, we as Europeans, we as Italians,
07:35we want to be strong partners of the United States in this race.
07:39And we all feel a common goal, which is that of the better
07:46men of humankind on Earth, our life.
07:50And this is the next step.
07:52So we are joined by a common goal.
07:54And you mentioned before competition.
07:56We know that China and India are also trying to get to the moon.
08:01Is this posing any pressure, let's say, to the Artemis program?
08:07I would say so.
08:09I think there is a real race going on.
08:13There is a pressure.
08:15That's why I believe that NASA administration a couple of months ago
08:20made those announcements through the ignition program,
08:24where they want to accelerate the number of flights
08:27and the sequence of flights.
08:30But with that pressure comes also a positive attitude
08:34that they want to achieve it.
08:36And we as Europeans have an opportunity to be part of this.
08:40So as a staff member of the European Space Agency,
08:44I believe that it's a positive move, that things are moving.
08:49NASA is targeting mid to late 2027 for Artemis III.
08:54But some experts say the timeline is kind of ambitious.
08:58What are your thoughts on this?
09:00I think it is ambitious and I think it should be ambitious.
09:03If we want to achieve complex objectives,
09:08you have to be ambitious and push hard.
09:12We are getting ready for this mission
09:15as if it's going to happen within one year.
09:19If that doesn't happen, it will not be because we are not ready.
09:23It will be because part of the system is not working
09:27at the same pace that we can put in.
09:29In a moving speech after being selected for Artemis III,
09:34you said that Italy was your launch pad
09:36and that the European Space Agency was your launch tower.
09:40What did Italy give you
09:42and what will you bring into orbit from your European identity?
09:47You have to think that when I was only 19 years old,
09:51Italy invested a lot in a young man that had big dreams.
09:57So I was able to go to the Italian Air Force Academy that gave me education,
10:04not only on paper, but also professional education.
10:08The Italian Air Force provided me with skills and a background
10:11that is very useful today in my job.
10:14But in general, the Italian system, which is a 100% free education system,
10:20gave me a lot of different tools that allowed me to continue growing as a young man,
10:27as an expert, as a professional, as a pilot.
10:30And then for Europeans, we have an incredible gift.
10:35People my age, we were not born Europeans.
10:38We became Europeans.
10:41This identity was desired.
10:44This identity has been a goal, something that we wanted to achieve.
10:48And so I bring that strive.
10:51I think that desire.
10:52I bring that strong feeling that this is something that I've always wanted,
10:56that we wanted as Europeans.
10:57And I bring that with me to share with everybody else.
11:00What will you miss the most when in orbit?
11:04Oh, I can already answer that question.
11:06Absolutely nothing.
11:07The time on orbit is limited.
11:09We all know that.
11:10Even if you go for a long duration missions,
11:13I spent 366 days in orbit on two different missions before.
11:18We know that it's borrowed time.
11:21It doesn't belong to us.
11:23So when you go on such a mission, when you have that privilege,
11:27you leave everything on the ground and knowing that you will be there
11:30and you go up thinking of everything that you can get from living on orbit.
11:36So I will personally, I already know that I will not miss much.
11:40I will be looking forward to a good coffee once I land,
11:43but I would say that that's about it.
11:45Thank you very much, Luca Parmitano, for joining us on 12 minutes with
11:49and good luck for the Artemis free.
11:52Thank you.
11:53Thank you.
Comments