Italian prepares to become the first European on the International Space Station
Italian astronaut, Umberto Guidoni, will be the first European to visit the International Space Station (ISS) when he lifts off aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on 19 April from the Kennedy Space centre in Florida. The shuttle will carry an international crew of seven, including Canada's Chris Hadfield and Russia's Yuri Lonchakov. This will be the ninth shuttle mission to the ISS. It will deliver a large Canadian robot arm and UHF antenna, which will require at least two space walks to install. In addition, the Italian-built logistics module Raffaello will deliver equipment, consumables and scientific experiments to the station's Destiny laboratory module.