Franco Malerba is the first Italian astronaut who flew in space with the Atlantis shuttle on 31st July 1992, bringing in orbit around Earth the Eureca laboratory and the Italian Tethered Satellite (TSS1). He is one of the few human beings who saw Earth as … a globe, spending eight days in space, flying 126 orbits around our planet. It was a “first” for the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in manned spaceflight.
Today Franco Malerba is an entrepreneur, founding partner of Space V, an Italian startup, incubated in the ESA Business Innovation Center in Turin and dedicated to the development of a special multi-storey adaptive greenhouse, dedicated to growing plants in space.
He is also active :
- participating as a Special Guest / Key-note-speaker in company conventions, where he interprets the space mission – symbol of the new frontier – as a paradigm of the values such as commitment to shared objectives, good practices in teamwork, rigorous preparation for contingencies and change, smart use of resources available
- contributing to the dissemination of scientific culture with the annual organization of the Busalla Space Festival
- broadening the boundaries of scientific communication with the staging of “Journey in Space”, a recital of words and music blending the narration of space travel by Franco Malerba himself with the music of the Alexandria Classical Orchestra lead by Maestro Luciano Girardengo.
Franco Malerba obtained a license as freelance journalist 2001. He is an editorialist of:
- La Stampa-Tuttoscienze, of the
- Il Secolo XIX
- Corriere Innovazione,
He is the author of three books:
- La Vetta / The Summit, (SAGEP) in which he gives his personal account of the complexities and emotions of conquering the highest summit above Earth.
- Professione Astronauta, (SAGEP) a biography revealing firsthand the events “Behind the scenes” of his extraordinary run-up to the conquest of his assignment to spaceflight.
- Il Cibo nello Spazio (Dedalo) a popular science booklet, describing life in space and the food for future space exploration.
Franco Malerba is a Reserve Officer of the Italian Navy, a member of the prestigious Académie de l’Air et de l’Espace and has received the NASA medal and the honors of Commander of the Italian Republic and Honorary Citizen of Busalla for merits in the field of science.
