On Saturday, Space Center Houston will host the premiere of a new documentary produced by Space City Films. EVA 23 tells the story of astronaut Luca Parmitano, who almost drowned while on a spacewalk in 2013.
Outer space is not completely empty, but it doesn’t contain much water, certainly not enough to drown an astronaut. Imagine the surprise and terror facing Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano when that fate almost befell him.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano after returning from his first trip to ISS. |
The story of his near-tragic spacewalk and the people who worked to keep him alive will be told at the latest installment of Space Center Houston’s Thought Leader Series.
The 25-minute documentary recounts Parmitano’s spacewalk that was cut short when his helmet filled with water. Hear why it happened, how he responded and what NASA learned about working in low Earth orbit.
Watch the trailer for the documentary here.
Q&A with Parmitano, fellow astronaut Chris Cassidy and former ISS Chief Engineer Chris Hansen follows the movie.
Reserved tickets are sold out. Overflow accommodations will ensure anyone interested in seeing this incredible film may do so. Get your ticket here.
Parmitano is a 42-year-old astronaut from Italy. He is a pilot who trained at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas as part of the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training in 2001. He was selected as a test pilot in 2007 and was selected as an astronaut for the European Space Agency in May 2009.
His first space mission was in 2013, where he spent 166 days in space and took part in two spacewalks, one of which went better than the other. Parmitano is still active and has been assigned a second mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2019.
