Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Ron Garan of NASA and Alexander Samokutyaev
and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency paid tribute to the
late mother of Italian Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency
with a moment of silence and a view of Italy out of the window of the Cupola
at 9:05 a.m. EDT on May 4, 2011. The moment of silence was observed as well at the Mission Control Centers in Houston; Huntsville, Alabama; Korolev, Russia; Munich, Germany and Tsukuba, Japan.
Nespoli's mother, Maria Motta, passed away on May 2 in the town of Verano Brianza, Italy, near Milan, after a lengthy illness. She was 78 years old.
