This photo was taken on 23 May, just hours before Nespoli departed the ISS at the end of his 159-day MagISStra mission. Vittori arrived on board Shuttle Endeavour, which docked just last week. This is the first time that two Italians were aboard the Station at the same time.

Furthermore: they are the only Europeans who have seen and visited ATV while in orbit! In 2008, during the ATV-1 mission, only Expeditions 16 (Peggy Whitson, Yuri Malenchenko and Garrett Reisman) and 17 (Sergey Volkov, Oleg Kononenko and South Korean spaceflight participant Yi So-Yeon) were aboard the ISS when it was docked.

On 23 May 2011, ESA astronauts Paolo Nespoli (left) and Roberto Vittori shake hands inside the ATV following an Earth-to-space phone tag-up with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Credit: NASA

On 23 May 2011, ESA astronauts Roberto Vittori (left) and Paolo Nespoli (right) shake hands inside the ATV following an Earth-to-space phone tag-up with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Credit: NASA