Franco Malerba

Franco Egidio Malerba is an Italian astronaut and Member of the European Parliament. He was the first citizen of Italy to travel to space. In 1994, he was elected to the European Parliament on the lists of Forza Italia, serving until 1999.

Education

1965 Maturità classica.
1970 University degree, Electronics Engineer, University of Genoa, Italy, specializing in the telecommunications field.
1974 Doctor in Physics, University of Genoa, specializing in Biophysics.

Organizations

Founding Member of the Italian Space Society.

Research activities

1970-75 Research Assistant at CNR's Laboratorio de Biofisica e Cibernetica carrying experimental work on membrane biophysics and biological membrane modeling with lipid bilayers.
1971 Lecturer of Cybernetics and Information Theory at the Physics Faculty, University of Genoa.
1972 Summer Research Assistant at the Nato Saclant Research Center working on computer-aided signal detection methodologies for sonar data systems.
1972-74 Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health designing, developing, testing and using a fast micro-spectrophotometer for research on photoreceptors biophysics.
1977-80 In 1977, Dr. Malerba was chosen by the European Space Agency as one of four European Payload Specialist Candidates for the first Spacelab mission. After this selection he became a staff member at the European [Space Research and Technology Centre] of ESA Space Science Department, Space Plasma Physics Division, working in the development, testing, and qualification of ES020 - PICPAB, an experiment in Ionospheric Plasma Physics for the first Spacelab payload, flown in 1983, involving the use of accelerated charged particle beams.

Industry experience

1976-89 Held technical and technical management positions with Digital Equipment in Italy and in Europe. He worked mainly in the field of multiprocessor systems, computer networks engineering, and telecommunications technology.

Military experience

Reserve Officer, Marina Militare. Served in 1974-75 ; was assigned to the Destroyer as Science Lecturer to the Naval Academy, and then to the Mariperman Technical Center in La Spezia working on ELF transmission systems.

Other skills

Obtained scuba diving license from the Calypso Scuba Club, Geneva.
In 2021, he started startup company SpaceV to research the possibility of growing plants in space.

Flying status

Obtained Private Pilot License and then the equivalent Italian flying license.

Spaceflight experience

After selection in 1989 as a Payload Specialist by the Italian Space Agency and NASA, he became a staff member of ASI and was assigned to the NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, for training. In September 1991, he was designated Prime Payload Specialist for the TSS-1 Space Shuttle mission. Malerba flew as the first Italian citizen in space on STS-46. He is now involved with the ASI's crewed space flight program follow-on activities.