Pietro in Orbital: Character Analysis

Overview

Pietro is the Italian astronaut aboard the International Space Station in Samantha Harvey's Orbital. He is one of six crew members—four astronauts from America, Japan, Britain, and Italy, and two Russian cosmonauts—who circle Earth for nine months. From the opening chapter, Pietro stands out for his humor and his longing for simple earthly pleasures, such as a rug or a farmhouse-style redecorated ship. The narrative describes him as a “natural-born astronaut” with an equilibrium that has existed since childhood, yet insists he is “no robot”—his heart “tilts and pitches” with feeling. This tension between professional composure and human vulnerability defines his character.

Plot Role

Pietro’s primary technical role involves scientific work, most notably the spectrometer he and Nell install during a spacewalk. This device measures Earth’s radiance, tracking whether the planet is dimming or brightening due to pollutants and melting ice. He thinks about it daily, filming the planet and waiting for the typhoon to come into view. His observations connect him to the novel’s central concern with Earth’s fragility and human impact. He also participates in routine experiments—monitoring microbes, growing protein crystals, tending plants—and joins the crew’s communal meals and film nights. His humor surfaces in moments like joking about the spaceship’s decor or suggesting that the subject of Las Meninas is the dog. He is also the one who reflects on progress, prompted by his daughter’s question, and who yearns for pointless objects like a rug when he returns to Earth.

Motivations and Traits

Pietro’s actions reveal a deep curiosity and a pragmatic optimism. He is drawn to the beauty of Earth, filming its “patterning of clouds” and the “wide spectrum of its oceans’ blues.” He finds euphoria in the blandest moments, as when he catches a glob of toothpaste midair. His humor is a coping mechanism for the strangeness of space life—he jokes about the farmhouse redecorating and the garlic experiment that left the craft smelling for weeks. Yet his yearning for earthly pleasures is genuine: he looks forward to a rug, fresh bread, and the taste of food. His emotional depth emerges in his reflections on his daughter’s question about progress. He wishes he had answered with “I don’t know my love” rather than certainty, and he believes progress is a feeling of adventure and expansion that starts in the belly and works up to the chest. He wants to share this “soft, open witnessing of all that is well” with his daughter.

Chronological Arc

Pietro’s arc traces his physical and emotional adaptation to microgravity. Early in the mission, he is described as having an extraordinary ease, but by Orbit 8 he reflects on his body’s atrophy, joking that he is becoming a tadpole. His sleep becomes tentative, his sense of taste dulled, and his thoughts fewer and more distinct. He experiences a period of intense longing for his wife about a month in, followed by a dream about Nell after their spacewalk—a dream that embarrasses him and does not repeat, after which his sexuality quietens. By Orbit 14, he sleeps dreamlessly, a rare deep sleep, as if he has accepted the triviality and momentousness of their lives. His arc moves from initial wonder and humor to a quieter, more philosophical acceptance of his place in the cosmos.

Relationships

Pietro’s most significant relationship is with his daughter, though she never appears directly. Her question about progress haunts him, and he wishes he could share the experience of orbit with her. His relationship with Nell is professional and personal: they install the spectrometer together, and his dream about her reveals a suppressed attraction that he handles with embarrassment and then lets fade. With the crew, he forms a familial bond—they come to regard one another as family, and the ship is metaphorically a body with each member as an organ. He also carries a memory of Filipino children he met on his honeymoon, which surfaces when he photographs the super-typhoon, linking his personal past to the global catastrophe unfolding below.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Pietro’s decision to answer his daughter’s question about progress with certainty—rather than admitting uncertainty—is a key moment. He regrets it, recognizing that the question deserved an innocent answer. His garlic experiment, meant to add flavor to bland space food, backfires and leaves the craft smelling for weeks, a comic failure that underscores the difficulty of recreating earthly comforts. His choice to embrace the “feeling of progress” rather than a material definition shapes his worldview. He also decides to let go of his sexual longing after the dream, accepting the body’s running-down in microgravity.

Themes and Symbols

Pietro embodies several of the novel’s themes. His perspective from orbit highlights the orbital perspective and borderlessness of Earth, as he sees continents pass without national boundaries. His observations of the typhoon and the planet’s dimming connect to Earth’s fragility and human impact. His physical atrophy and changing sense of time reflect time and bodily disintegration in microgravity. His humor and ability to find wonder in routine illustrate normalizing the extraordinary. His longing for earthly pleasures and his reflections on his daughter touch on grief and the maternal earth, though his grief is more for lost connection than for a specific person.

Questions and Answers

1. Why does Pietro think about the spectrometer every day?

He installed it with Nell and it measures Earth’s radiance, helping determine whether the planet is dimming or brightening due to pollutants and melting ice. He is invested in understanding the planet’s energy balance and fears losing its radiance.

1. What does Pietro mean when he says progress is “not a thing but a feeling”?

He tells himself this after regretting his answer to his daughter. He believes progress is an internal sense of adventure and expansion, a “belly-chest knowing” of beauty, rather than a measurable achievement. He wants to share this feeling with her.

1. How does Pietro’s body change during the mission?

He experiences atrophy, becoming “all head and no body” like a tadpole. His sleep becomes tentative, his taste dulled, and his thoughts fewer and more distinct. He feels a cooling of systems and a lack of commitment to animal life.

1. What is the significance of Pietro’s dream about Nell?

After their spacewalk, he dreams of holding her and kissing her neck, which embarrasses him so much he can barely look at her. The dream does not repeat, and afterward his sexuality quietens, suggesting a letting go of earthly desires in the face of space’s demands.

1. How does Pietro’s humor function in the novel?

His jokes—about redecorating the ship like a farmhouse, the garlic experiment, or the dog in Las Meninas—provide levity and normalize the extraordinary circumstances of space life. They also reveal his yearning for ordinary earthly pleasures and his ability to find joy in the mundane.

For a broader look at the novel’s structure and meaning, see the main book page and the ending explained.