Malerba, Franco

Franco Malerba, in full Franco Egidio Malerba, (born Oct. 10, 1946, Genoa, Italy), Italian biophysicist, astronaut, and member of the European Parliament, the first Italian to travel into space.

Malerba received a B.S. in engineering (with a specialization in telecommunications) from the University of Genoa in 1970. After doing research at the Italian National Research Council’s Cybernetics and Biophysics Laboratory in Genoa and at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., he earned a doctorate in physics (with a specialization in biophysics) from the University of Genoa in 1974. He served in the Italian navy between 1974 and 1975.

In 1977 the European Space Agency (ESA) selected Malerba as one of four payload specialist candidates for the first Spacelab mission on board the U.S. space shuttle. He worked as a research scientist in the space plasma physics division of ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, Neth., for the next three years (1977–80). Malerba was also employed by the American company Digital Equipment Corporation in technical and management positions for 13 years (1976–89).

Malerba was chosen for payload specialist training by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1989. He flew into space on July 31, 1992, on the space shuttle Atlantis as the prime payload specialist on the STS-46 mission. Unfortunately, the mission’s primary payload, the joint NASA/ASI Tethered Satellite System, was deployed only to 256 metres (840 feet) of its full extent of 20 km (13 miles) owing to technical problems with a jammed tether line. STS-46 returned to Earth on Aug. 8, 1992.

Between 1994 and 1999 Malerba served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the European People’s Party, a Christian-Democratic group. Malerba was also involved in the local government of Genoa from 1997 to 1999.