WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Inside the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo lab on the International Space Station (ISS), European Space Agency astronauts Paolo Nespoli (left rear) and Roberto Vittori (right rear) are pictured during an Earth-to-space phone tag-up with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev (left front) and Mark Kelly, the respective commanders for the two, introduced the ESA astronauts and left them in Kibo to visit with the president. Nespoli has been on the station for over five months and is due to return to Earth in less than 24 hours. Vittori is on a 16-day mission of the space shuttle Endeavour, joined by five NASA astronauts. This occasion is the second time two Italian astronauts have been in space together and the first time in the last 15 years.