11|02|24 ~ Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli left Earth on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on December 15, 2010, together with NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman and Russian cosmonaut Dmitri Kondratyev. He is now at living at the International Space Station (ISS) (Extra postage reuires if you want to mail him a postcard). Their mission, known as 'MagISStra', is expected to last six months. Paolo and his colleagues will be back in May, 2011. Nespoli is carrying out an intensive programme of experiments, ranging from radiation monitoring to measurements that could improve oil recovery in petroleum reservoirs. He is also tweeting! You can follow him at @astro_paolo. We share a couple of his tweets:

"Tutto sotto controllo! Confesso pero' che tra tutti questi esperimenti con diete speciali una bella pizza non ci starebbe male! ;-)"

"Oh, I forgot! I have no choice: I must eat rehydrated Chicken Pineapple Salad - it's a low-salt diet experiment. Things we do for science!"

(Pictured above: Paolo warming his food - probably a rehydrated chicken!; Paolo drinking Chainti with a "cannuccia'!)

|CiaoAmerica.net|