Parmitano: ‘Closer ties with NASA do not rule out European autonomy’

As well as a rapprochement between NASA and ESA following the backtracking on the Lunar Gateway, will the Europeans also manage to come up with their own Plan B for autonomy in space? “The two things are not mutually exclusive, and the rapprochement has already taken place.” So says Luca Parmitano in a press briefing on the announcement of his inclusion in the crew of the Artemis III mission of NASA. ‘Here in Houston, we saw ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher (present for the crew presentation, ed.) speaking with NASA’s Jared Isaacman about Europe’s future contribution to the Artemis III programme. We are proving ourselves to be partners you can count on, and we also know we have a piece of technology that is indispensable – the European service module – and others that will come for the more advanced phases, such as the landers and so on,” explained Parmitano. “At the same time, if we want to be able, as Europeans, to contribute with values, collaboration, cooperation and for the common good, we must have the capability for independent access to space, and this is what we will propose to our member states, drawing on our expertise,” he added the astronaut.

The view on Italia, in any case, is optimistic: ‘The statements made a few weeks ago by the government and ASI regarding the fact that’ the country ‘wants to be at the heart of exploration through the construction of surface modules represent an extremely positive sign’. The signals sent out by Italia represent “the desire to be involved and the desire to be, together with the European Space Agency, a partner that can be relied upon with its resources, its universities, its industries and its astronauts”.

As for the future of Artemis, it could well be a female-led one. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, on the next Artemis mission, we saw a crew led by female colleagues,” says Parmitano. In the hours following the announcement of the team, “our crew were asked if we were aware that we were all men and that there were no women. Honestly, I was very surprised,” he says. “First of all, because we have an excellent level of diversity. And secondly, I’ve just come back from a mission where I had two female colleagues on board, one of whom is now on the International Space Station, ready to take command shortly. And a mission has just returned where the commander and pilot were two American female colleagues. And another one is about to set off.”