![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/videos\/2017\/07\/vita_hatch_opening\/17085076-4-eng-GB\/Vita_hatch_opening_small.jpg\")
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\nESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik and Roscosmos commander Sergey Ryazansky entered the International Space Station in the early hours of 29 July after a six-hour trip in their Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft. The Expedition 52\/53 crew was launched from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 28 July.\n<\/p>\n
\nAfter orbiting Earth four times to catch up to the International Space Station, the car-sized spacecraft arrived at the Station six hours after launch. Paolo, Randy and Sergey will spend five months in space working and living on the International Space Station.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe Vita mission is the tenth long-duration mission for an ESA astronaut and the third mission to the Station for Paolo Nespoli.\n<\/p>\n
\nVita stands for Vitality, Innovation, Technology and Ability and was chosen by Italy\u2019s ASI space agency, which is providing the mission through a barter agreement with NASA.\n<\/p>\n
\nIn Italian, \u201cvita\u201d means \u201clife\u201d, reflecting the experiments that Paolo will run and the philosophical notion of living in outer space \u2013 one of the most inhospitable places for humans.\n<\/p>\n
\nPaolo\u2019s extensive scientific programme includes experiments in biology, human physiology as well as space environment monitoring, materials science and technology demonstrations.\n<\/p>\n
\nWhen not performing science, Paolo will work with his colleagues to maintain the Space Station and keep the orbital outpost running smoothly for the crew of six.\n<\/p>\n
\nFollow Paolo and his mission via paolonespoli.esa.int<\/a> and the mission blog<\/a> for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \nESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik and Roscosmos commander Sergey Ryazansky entered the International Space Station in the early hours of 29 July after a six-hour trip in their Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft. The Expedition 52\/53 crew was launched from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 28 July.\n<\/p>\n \nAfter orbiting Earth four times to catch up to the International Space Station, the car-sized spacecraft arrived at the Station six hours after launch. Paolo, Randy and Sergey will spend five months in space working and living on the International Space Station.\n<\/p>\n \nThe Vita mission is the tenth long-duration mission for an ESA astronaut and the third mission to the Station for Paolo Nespoli.\n<\/p>\n \nVita stands for Vitality, Innovation, Technology and Ability and was chosen by Italy’s ASI space agency, which is providing the mission through a barter agreement with NASA.\n<\/p>\n \nIn Italian, “vita” means “life”, reflecting the experiments that Paolo will run and the philosophical notion of living in outer space – one of the most inhospitable places for humans.\n<\/p>\n \nPaolo’s extensive scientific programme includes experiments in biology, human physiology as well as space environment monitoring, materials science and technology demonstrations.\n<\/p>\n \nWhen not performing science, Paolo will work with his colleagues to maintain the Space Station and keep the orbital outpost running smoothly for the crew of six.\n<\/p>\n \nFollow Paolo and his mission via paolonespoli.esa.int<\/a> and the mission blog<\/a> for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=351325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358520,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351325\/revisions\/358520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n