Italian astronaut will be the first European woman to command space station – Observer

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“I hope to use my experience in space and on Earth to lead a particularly brilliant team in orbit,” said the Italian astronaut, quoted by ESA, in a comment on her appointment as commander of the International Space Station in 2022.

Before Samantha Cristoforetti, EEI had only four European astronauts, all male, as commanders. Belgian Frank De Winne was the first in 2009.

ESA has a new astronaut recruitment campaign under way, with which it intends to increase the number of women in space and have a reinforced force for future missions to the moon or even to Mars.

Places are open for four to six permanent astronauts and 20 reserve astronauts, including for the first time an astronaut with a physical disability. The process for submitting candidacies ends on June 18 and the “elected” should be known in October of next year.

The International Space Station is a scientific laboratory and the “home” of astronauts in Earth orbit, from where it is at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.

Samantha Cristoforetti was the first person to make an espresso with a “view” to the planet, at EEI, where she stayed for the first time between 2014 and 2015 (about six months).

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