On the 25 April 2002 ESA Astronaut Roberto Vittori will be launched on board a Russian Soyuz vehicle to the International Space Station. The mission is codenamed 'Marco Polo' and during his 10 days in space Roberto Vittori will carry out a number of ESA and ASI experiments.
This is the first in a two-part series about the astronaut and his mission. This first programme focuses on the Italian astronaut and his training at Star City. It comprises of an A-roll with split audio and English commmentary and a longer B-Roll with clean international sound.

SCRIPT
10:00:00:
""I don't know when I will go to space but hopefully soon"" In July last year, Roberto Vittori, an ESA astronaut, was chosen as part of a team for a taxi-flight bound for the International Space Station later this month. Last August, Vittori took up his training as flight engineer at the Gargarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, near Moscow, in preparation for the Marco Polo Mission.
10:00:45:
In Vittori's words, he will be Italy's 'first cosmonaut'. No other Italian astronaut currently working and training for ESA, has taken part on a Soyuz Mission before.
10:00:55:
Originally, a military pilot, Vittori was selected as an astronaut by the Italian Space Agency, in co-operation with ESA and in August 1998 he joined ESA's European Astronaut Corps.
10:01:10:
He immediately moved to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and entered the Astronaut class for participation in a training programme that qualifies astronauts for future assignments on the Space Shu