The premier welcomed the Sicilian astronaut Luca Parmitano and his wife to Palazzo Chigi ahead of the 2027 Artemis III mission, calling his selection an honour for the entire nation.
Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday received astronaut Luca Parmitano at Palazzo Chigi and handed him the official tricolour flag of the Italian state to carry with him on the Artemis III mission. Last month NASA announced that Italian Air Force Colonel Parmitano would be the pilot of the mission, scheduled for the second half of 2027.
Meloni congratulated Parmitano on landing an assignment “which brings honour to the entire nation and confirms, once again, Italy’s excellence in the space sector.” She presented the flag as a “symbol of Italian ingenuity, identity, and pride.”
“We are very proud and very curious,” Meloni said as she handed it over. “Not many deserve it like you.”
What is the Artemis III mission?
Parmitano, who was accompanied by his wife, outlined the complexity of the mission before receiving the flag.
“It is a one-of-a-kind mission; it echoes what happened with Apollo 9,” he said. “For us, it is the third — the second with a crew — and the very first where we will test the systems essential for the Moon. It is a mission dedicated entirely to experimentation and testing.”
The mission will involve rendezvous and docking manoeuvres between multiple spacecraft. “We will pilot the spacecraft close to the lander, dock with it, and allow the astronauts to transfer from one spacecraft to the other; afterwards, we will undock, fly around the lander to verify that everything went smoothly, and then move away,” he explained.
The sequence will then be repeated with a second lander using different procedures, as the two landers are built differently. “It is an extremely complex mission,” Parmitano said, contrasting it with Artemis II, which he described as recently having landed and been highly successful, but involving just one spacecraft and a relatively simple mission profile. “We have three spacecraft, three control centres, and three ground crews that must all work together in a coordinated way.”
He added: “From Monday I’ll probably be strapped tight into the spacecraft seat, learning everything down to the last bolt.”
