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Incredible as it sounds, this story is set in the early 1900s. Or rather, to be precise, it began in 1885, the birth year of engineer and inventor Luigi Gussalli, a pioneer first in the field of automobiles, then from the 1920s onward a true forerunner of Italian astronautics, on par with Oberth in Germany and Goddard in America. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the ch...

Without Edoardo Amaldi, the whole world of science would be infinitely poorer. Without the passion, foresight, genius, spirit of self-sacrifice, and sense of civic duty of Edoardo Amaldi, today Italy wouldn’t have a cutting-edge school of physics of such great international standing and influence Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the great...

Clyde Tombaugh was born on the 4th of February 1906 in Illinois into a farming family. His parents’ hoped that their little boy who was growing up healthy and happy would make himself useful in the fields. But Clyde’s gaze fell not so much on the land as on the sky, as he had a passion for stargazing. Because we all have our own destiny written for us, beyond our DNA, perhaps somewhere in the star...

Previous episodes of Look Up have been dedicated to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Robert Goddard, a Russian and an American who, while miles and miles apart and with no way of meeting up, comparing notes or exchanging ideas, both worked in that field made up of calculations, visions, daring projects and intrepid experiments, with one common goal: space flight. There’s also a third pioneer who worked...

Goddard, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on the 5th of October 1882, was just an ordinary American boy. But a boy with a dream: to launch a rocket into orbit. His passion grew when his father gave him a telescope and when later, as an adolescent, he read H. G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds". In 1907, as a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, he began building rockets fuelled by gunpowder.  Lo...

A pioneer of rocket science, the first person to come up with the idea of a space elevator, and a populariser influenced by Cosmism, the school of thought popular in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th century, which centred on man as a god able to control natural forces and turn them to his advantage.  Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of...

A life of adventure awaited Alexei Leonov from his birth in southwest Siberia on 30 May 1934. A legendary character and audacious world-beater, he was the eleventh Soviet cosmonaut, best known as the first man to carry out a spacewalk on 18 March 1965. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the great space adventure. Script Daniela Amenta. Post...

Captain Alan Shepard is ready for his great adventure in space. Last night he slept only three hours, not because he was nervous, but because these were the specific instructions of the doctors. As he steps onto the lift which will take him to the capsule, his doctor states to the journalists: Alan is as cool as a cucumber.  Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the charact...

She used to say: “The more competent you are, the more authoritative you will seem.” And so she studied – hard, she studied day and night to become a physicist despite the scepticism of her mother, who wanted her to become an interpreter.  Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the great space adventure. Script Daniela Amenta. Post-production P...

Stockholm. December 2002. The Nobel prize in physics is awarded to Riccardo Giacconi "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources”. The world of science clapped; Italy went wild. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the great space adventure. Script Daniela Amenta. Post-production Paol...

A multi-faceted man. You could summarise thus the story of Paolo Nespoli, born in Milan under the sign of Aries on 6 April 1957.  First a serviceman, then an engineer, and finally an astronaut, he is today a refined and cultured scientific populariser and a sensitive, illuminated writer, able to tap into the anxieties of young people, like in his 2022 novel "L'unico giorno giusto per arrendersi"....

A rockstar of the skies. Astronaut, test pilot, entrepreneur, leader of and witness to miraculous undertakings. Cheli’s is a life lived to the fullest, including no less than four university degrees. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the great space adventure. Script Daniela Amenta. Post-production Paola Pagone. Visual design Paola Gavirag...

It's hard to say what would Umberto Guidoni reply if asked about the award he cherishes the most among the many he received. Umberto Guidoni is a man of many talents and a truly generous heart. A scientist who has always taken that extra step and went a very long way. Astronaut, astrophysicist, writer, and excellent popularizer, he has never hesitated to take responsibility for his actions and opi...

There are scientists who make indispensable contributions to research and humankind but who always remain a step behind, shying away from the limelight to stay focused, not to waste precious time, to keep on working and making discoveries. Giovanni Picardi, professor emeritus at La Sapienza University in Rome, was among those very special scholars. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agenc...

Margherita Hack's’voice, resonating in the universe with her Tuscan accent that never left her, recalls the parable of a life born in Florence on June 12, 1922, at Via delle Cento Stelle. Was space her destiny? Professor Hack laughed at the notion, not subscribing to destiny but believing in the impact of diligence and merit, as well as in the force of dreams. Look up is the podcast of the Italian...

If he had not died so young, at only 59, perhaps the space race between the Soviet Union and the US might have gone differently. We’ll never know! Sergey Pavlovič Korolëv lived a short but very intense life that was marked by sorrows, hardships, and even 10 years of hard labor in Stalin's gulags for crimes never committed. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the character...

"Space is a matter of balance, people are a matter of balance, and relationships are a matter of balance: balance is the real force that we must train and develop for whatever planet we are on and will be on in the future." That's what Roberto Vittori, Air Force Brigadier General, European Space Agency astronaut, and Space Affairs attaché at the Italian Embassy in Washington DC., likes to say. Loo...

Today he is an astronaut of the European Space Agency. He was the first Italian national to carry out an extravehicular activity on July 9, 2013, with 6 hours and 7 minutes of spacewalk. He was also the first Italian astronaut in command of the International Space Station (ISS) during Expedition 61. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the gr...

Almost sixty years ago in 1964, the Fiat 600 was Italy's darling, the Milan-Naples highway (the so-called Autostrada del Sole) had just been inaugurated, and the economic boom was beginning to wane but the labor market was still strong. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the great space adventure. Script Daniela Amenta. Post-production Paol...

Franco Malerba is a man of many talents. His knowledge, passions and interests are quite impressive. Let's try and sketch his profile with a few strokes: an astronaut, of course, but also a researcher, a naval officer, a computer engineer, an academic and a former EMP, a science attaché, a journalist, a writer, a science popularizer, an event organizer, and even a performer. Look up is the podcast...

What an extraordinary man Rocco Anthony Petrone was! He served as the launch director of the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first man on the moon. He was the one to give the "Go" whispering God bless you, we can make it! What strength, ingenuity and passion he had! Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the great space adventure. Script Da...

Name: Giuseppe. Nickname: Bepi. Last Name: Colombo. What’s in a name, we would be tempted to ask! Colombo resonates with great adventures. Like Christopher Columbus before him, Bepi Colombo also set sails in his own way and navigated the vast expanse of celestial seas holding steadily onto the compass of his calculations which opened the way to the exploration of Mercury, the smallest planet in th...

Distinctive features: engineer, retired Air Force pilot officer with the rank of Captain, ESA astronaut, first Italian woman to fly into space. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of the great space adventure. Script Daniela Amenta. Post-production Paola Pagone. Visual design Paola Gaviraghi. Editorial Coordination Giuseppina Pulcrano and Manue...

Amalia Ercoli Finizi's great passion is looking at the sky at night. Sirius is her favorite star she says it's very easy to identify: just follow Orion's Belt, "go beyond it, to the left, and there it is, shining brightly." A stellar career and a life as bright as Sirius for the "lady of comets " born in 1937 in Gallarate. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the character...

Valentina Tereshkova, callsign ‘Chaika’ (‘Seagull’), used to work as a dressmaker and a textile factory assembly worker. She walked away from the factory at 21 years of age to fulfill her dream of becoming Great Mother Russia’s ‘cosmonette’. A passionate skydiver, at 28 she started training as a cosmonaut. Look up is the podcast of the Italian Space Agency that tells the characters and exploits of...