Astronaut Nespoli to be next Italian on International Space Station

(ANSA) - Rome, July 30 - Astronaut Paolo Nespoli, tagged to be the next Italian to conduct a mission on the International Space Station (ISS), joked Thursday that he believes in life exists outside of earth.
    Ahead of his third trip into outer space, Nespoli, 58, said during a news conference that he has living proof of existence beyond our planet.
    "I believe in the extraterrestrials (because) I was in orbit with five others," he joked, referring to his previous missions.
    The Milan native and Army officer is preparing to start his next mission in May 2017, when he will be 60.
    With this mission, Nespoli will become the first Italian to do a second six-month stint in space, after his stay on the ISS from December 2010 to May 2011.
    He said that he was also encouraged by last week's announcement of the discovery of Earth's "twin" planet, Kepler 452B, adding this demonstrated the value of believing that nothing is impossible.
    "I've never seen (such) other planets, but that isn't to say they don't exist," said Nespoli.
    "The problem is finding them".
    And while it is "a problem" that Earth's twin was identified 1,400 light years away, its discovery was encouraging.
    "If we look at the past, every time something was considered an impossible task, someone has woken up and found a way to do it," said Nespoli.
    "I always say this, so that kids can dream of doing things that seem to be impossible".
    Italians, and much of the world, closely followed the space adventures of the most recent Italian astronaut on the ISS, Samantha Cristoforetti.
    She returned on June 11 after seven months in space, where she became something of a celebrity with her Twitter posts about life on the space station and her experiments.