Luca Parmitano aka 'AstroLuca',
the first European to command the International Space Station
(ISS), is the pride of the Italian space programme, President
Sergio Mattarella told him on a video link with the presidential
palace Wednesday.
Mattarella said Italy's part in the ISS, both in its
construction and in its experiments, was a cause for "pride and
gratitude".
"I'm grateful to Italy for having a strong push towards
space," replied Parmitano.
He was speaking from the ISS's Columbus European module,
built in Italy.
The video hook-up was set up by the European Space Agency
(ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
Parmitano told Mattarella that the first of his four planned
space walks with US colleague Andrew Morgan to modify the AMS
antimatter seeker will take place on November 15.
He said the walks would be the "most difficult ever
attempted".
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