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Maurizio Cheli | |
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| Born | (1959-05-04)4 May 1959 (age 66) Zocca, Italy |
| Occupation | Test pilot |
| Space career | |
| ASI/ESA astronaut | |
| Rank | Lieutenant colonel,Italian Air Force |
Time in space | 15d 17h 41m |
| Selection | 1992 ESA Group |
| Missions | STS-75 |
Mission insignia |  |
Maurizio Cheli (born 4 May 1959) is an Italian air force officer, aEuropean Space Agencyastronaut and a veteran of oneNASASpace Shuttle mission.
Cheli was born on 4 May 1959 inZocca. He attended theItalian Air Force Academy and trained as a test pilot in 1988 at theEmpire Test Pilots' School, England. He was awarded the McKenna Trophy as the best student on his course, as well as the Sir Alan Cobham Award for the highest standard of flying and the Hawker Hunter Trophy for he best Preview Handling report. He studiedgeophysics at theUniversity of Rome La Sapienza and earned a master's degree inaerospace engineering from theUniversity of Houston. He then trained with theUnited States Air Force and was selected as an astronaut candidate by the European Space Agency in 1992. He holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in theItalian Air Force. He flew aboardSTS-75 in 1996 as a mission specialist.
That same year he joinedAlenia Aeronautica, and two years later he became Chief Test Pilot for combat aircraft. His last test program was for theEurofighter Typhoon.
Maurizio Cheli has more than 380 hours of space activity and more than 4500 flying hours on more than 50 different aircraft types.
He is married to fellow former ESA astronautMarianne Merchez.
During the 2009World Air Games inTurin, on 12 June 2009 the SkySpark experimental aircraft piloted by Cheli logged the speed world record for its class, powered by an electric engine designed by the DigiSky, an aviation technologies firm founded by Cheli himself in 2005.
NASA Astronaut Group 13 ← NASA Astronaut Group 14 →NASA Astronaut Group 15 | |||||||
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| International mission specialists |
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