He was the first non-American to fly into space as a “mission specialist”. A true (it)alien could be defined as Maurizio Cheli, on a mission on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1996. “Alien” because that's what NASA calls, with a technical term, non-American astronauts. He was selected, with 5 others from 6,500 aspirants, the first Italian professional astronaut. An «alien» by Zocca. «… and yes – he answers even before the question about Vasco – I know him and we have one thing in common: we both like to go to the maximum but each does it in his own way». Cheli has a space, today, for every terrestrial adventure. He is an entrepreneur, writer (“Everything in an instant”, Minerva ed.), passionate motivational speaker. He found the definition of “passion” on his own. None of those in the dictionary satisfied him enough, he who had already decided at the age of 5 that he would fly, after abandoning the idea of being a fireman or truck driver. «An airplane passed very low over my head. I looked up and never looked down again.” Dreams. And passion to turn them into reality. «Passion is the most important thing we have. For me – he says – it's putting my stomach and brain together. The stomach gives us the natural direction towards which we feel attracted, then the brain is used to make decisions.” Well, it's easy to talk about passion when you look at space. «The exhilarating goal does not make everyday activities equally exhilarating. Training for example is super repetitive, extremely boring, with impossible schedules. Yet it is precisely with that everyday activity that we build a mattress of determination and competence that will be useful when that moment comes when the situation is bigger than us, it will make us fall. And that's where we need that mattress on which to cushion the fall and from there bounce with much more energy.” His is a passion in Italian style. He became an astronaut by “reading the newspaper”. There was an advert: “Astronauts wanted for the European Space Agency”, not exactly written like that but that was the meaning. «No one had yet flown in Italy and arriving in space really seemed like science fiction». As a good Italian he submitted his request with an old registered letter. Two years of selection, and finally: astronaut at NASA. Phone call home. «Hey dad, I did it! I'm an astronaut.” “But is this astronaut a safe job?” and he wasn't referring to the dangerousness of the job “he wanted to know if I would take home my salary at the end of the month”. The Italian space is made up of all this. Looking up but with your feet on the ground. That Earth from which Cheli was “shot” onto the Space Shuttle: 2,500 tons of weight with 3,500 tons of thrust thanks to the main engines. In 8 minutes and 28 seconds at 400 kilometers altitude in orbit. Among 1300 different switches, the awareness that when you close the porthole the closest person is 8 kilometers away, the discovery that the Earth is blue and the sky blacker than black, a smell: that of bananas.
Bananas? In the space? The non-American astronaut can bring a food to reconnect with his roots. Cheli, like a good it-alien, had brought the parmesan. One of his colleagues had a small bag of bananas that had opened during the depressurization phase. For Cheli, space will always taste a bit like bananas.