Malerba flew in 1992 as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle STS-46 mission. A special collaborative effort in international space cooperation between the United States and Italy, the mission was devoted to testing the Italian Tethered Satellite System from Earth orbit, which Malerba oversaw and conducted. A native of Genoa, Italy, Malerba was selected by the European Space Agency in 1978 as an astronaut candidate and became a staff of the Italian Space Agency. In 1991 he began training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to be a payload specialist aboard the shuttle Atlantis STS-46 mission. He flew into space on 31 July 1992 and spent seven days in space. After his flight he became a research scientist and authored several scientific publications. He also became a founding member of the Italian Space Society (1993) and served in the European Parliament.