Space: Mattarella tells Nespoli, "Open a window to the future"
Rome - "You open a window to the future for the world". Sergio Mattarella connected the Quirinale Palace to astronaut Paolo Nespoli on the International Space Station, asking questions on the astronaut's daily life, tasks and research on space, then asked him for "a gift": "I would like you to take a picture of Italy from space and send it to me, because I would like to hang it here at the Quirinale Palace". "I will, we are a lucky country, a really interesting concentrated geography. I will bring you a picture of our country", answered Nespoli. Nespoli left on 28 July for the VITA (Vitality, Innovation, Technology, Ability) mission, the third long term mission of the Italian Space Agency, which will end in December. This is the third space mission for the Italian astronaut, after the 2007 Esperia mission on the Shuttle Discovery and the MagISStra mission in 2010. During his six months in space he will follow over 200 experiments, 11 of which were selected by the Agency in the field of biomedics and technology.