Portrait of Paolo Nespoli

Birthday profile

Paolo Nespoli

Paolo Nespoli, Italian soldier, engineer, and astronaut

Born
April 6, 1957
Age in 2026
69
Zodiac sign
Aries
Birth year
1957

About Paolo Nespoli

Major Paolo Angelo Nespoli (born 6 April 1957) is an Italian astronaut and engineer of the European Space Agency (ESA). In 2007, he first traveled into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a mission specialist of STS-120. In December 2010 he again traveled into space aboard the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft as an Expedition 26/27 flight engineer. Nespoli's third spaceflight was on board Soyuz MS-05, which launched in July 2017 for Expedition 52/53. He was also the European Space Agency's oldest active astronaut prior to his retirement in 2019. == Personal == Nespoli's hometown is Verano Brianza, in northern Italy. He is married to Russian Alexandra Ryabova, and they have one daughter and a son. Nespoli enjoys Scuba diving, piloting aircraft, photography, and building electronic equipment and computer software. He supports Serie A team Inter. == Education == He received his bachelor's degree in Aerospace engineering in 1988 and his master's degree in 1989 in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Polytechnic University in New York.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Paolo Nespoli timeline

  1. In early January, Nespoli filmed the majority of the footage for the 2011 documentary film First Orbit, and as a result is credited as its director of photography.
  2. As Paolo left the ISS on 23 May 2011 in the Soyuz TMA-20 he was able to take the first pictures of a Space Shuttle docked with the ISS from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
  3. Nespoli's third spaceflight was on board Soyuz MS-05, which launched in July 2017 for Expedition 52/53.

The world when Paolo Nespoli was born

Paolo Nespoli was born in 1957. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1957

  • #1 song"All Shook Up" – Elvis Presley
  • Top movieThe Bridge on the River Kwai
  • Top TV showGunsmoke
  • Best-selling bookOn the Road – Jack Kerouac

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentMilwaukee Braves win the World Series
  • Top headlineSoviet Union launches Sputnik — Space Race begins
  • Technology milestoneSputnik 1 becomes first artificial satellite in orbit
  • Defining fadHula hoops (early buzz)
  • Notable inventionFrisbee
  • World population2.87 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championMilwaukee Braves (World Series)
  • Also wonBoston Celtics (NBA)
  • U.S. population171.2M

1957 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Paolo Nespoli's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19572026
Gas$0.31$3.45/gal
Average home$12,200$435,000
Average income$6,700$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.51$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population171.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.