Paolo Nespoli received a Bachelor of Science
in Aerospace Engineering in 1988 and a Master of Science in Aeronautics and
Astronautics in 1989 from the Polytechnic University of New York. He was
awarded the Laurea in Ingegneria Meccanica by the Università degli Studi
di Firenze, Italy, in 1990.
His civilian qualifications are professional
engineer, private pilot, advanced scuba diver and nitrox diver. His
militaryqualifications are master parachutist, parachute instructor, jump
master, high-altitude low opening, Special Forces operator.
Paolo Nespoli
was drafted by the Italian army in 1977 and became a non-commissioned officer
working as a parachute instructor at the Scuola Militare di Paracadutismo of
Pisa. In 1980 he joined the 9° Btg dAssalto Col Moschin
of Livorno, where he became a Special Forces operator. From 1982 to 1984, he
was assigned to the Italian contingent of the Multinational Peacekeeping Force
in Beirut, Lebanon. Following his return to Italy he was appointed an officer
and continued working as a Special Forces operator. Paolo Nespoli resumed his
university studies in 1985. He left active army duty in 1987. Upon completing
his MSc in 1989, he returned to Italy to work as a design engineer for Proel
Tecnologie in Florence, where he conducted mechanical analysis and supported
the qualification of the flight units of the Electron Gun Assembly, one of the
main parts of the Italian space agencys Tethered Satellite System. In
1991 he worked for
ESA
European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. As an astronaut training
engineer, he contributed to basic training for the European
ESTEC. Paolo Nespoli was responsible for the
preparation and management of astronaut proficiency maintenance as well as the
Astronaut Training Database, a system used for astronaut training. In 1995, he
worked on the EuroMir project at
ESAs
ESTEC establishment in Noordwijk, the Netherlands,
where he was responsible for the team that prepared, integrated and supported
the Payload and Crew Support Computer used on Russias
Mir space station. In 1996, Paolo Nespoli went to
NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA,
where he worked in the Spaceflight Training Division on training crew for the
International Space Station.
In July 1998, Paolo Nespoli was selected as
an astronaut by Italys
ASI space agency, and a month later, joined
ESAs European Astronaut Corps, based at the
European Astronaut Centre. In August 1998, he relocated to
NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas,
and was assigned to the 17
th
NASA astronaut class.
He enjoys scuba diving,
piloting aircraft, assembling computer hardware, electronic equipment and
computer software.