Sicilian Culture: The News & Views: Italian Astronaut Launches National Pride

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Italian Astronaut Launches National Pride
"Thanks in the name of all Italians for taking our country into space,"writes Paolo, 20 in a forum dedicated to astronaut Umberto Guidoni who arrived on the international space station Alpha on Saturday.
Many forum posts attest to an unusual surge in national pride following local media coverage of the lone Italian (the crew is comprised of four Americans, one Canadian and a Russian) responsible for cargo van Raffaello.
Guidoni, a physicist from Rome who has lived in Houston for the last decade, brought two symbolic contributions with him - a pound of Parmigiano cheese and a cd of overtures from Verdi¹s operas.
The mission of the 46-year-old is considered a coup for Italy¹s national space agency (ASI), which only dates back to 1988. Then again, Italians have long joked about being a nation of "saints and explorers," and space is, after all, the final frontier.
www.kataweb.it/speciali/asi
Follow the mission from an Italian point of view, Guidoni will be chatting live on April 25 with President Ciampi and holding a press conference April 27.

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