Luca Parmitano is an Italian astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA) with 366 days in space, more than any ESA astronaut in history. He is the youngest non-Russian astronaut to undertake a long-duration mission and first-ever Italian International Space Station commander. Luca was awarded a Silver Medal to the Aeronautical Valour by the President of the Italian Republic in 2007 and was recognized a ‘Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica’ by the President of the Italian Republic in 2013. On August 13, 2019, Parmitano became the first DJ in space when he played a set of electronic music from the ISS for a music festival audience in Ibiza.

3 words to describe Nature?

Life. Water. Energy

3 things Nature taught you?

Resilience

Humility

Compassion

3 most treasured Nature spots?

The rocky beaches in Sicily

The wooded area in my parent’s land, up on mount Etna

The ‘Stagno of San Teodoro’

When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel…?

Alive

When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel…?

Happy

When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel…?

Home

When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel…?

Pensive

When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel…?

Energetic

When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel…?

Like reading a book

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?

Ocean

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory?

When I was a child, my father would dive in apnea to collect sea urchins, because my mother loved the rich, orange meat inside. I never cared too much for their taste, but as soon as I learned to hold my breath long enough to dive with my father, I would go with him… not to hunt, but to share that silent time and space with him, underwater, where this infinitely strange world would be ours only.