Samantha Cristoforetti

Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian astronaut who worked with the European Space Agency. She was also a pilot and engineer in the Italian Air Force before becoming an astronaut. She is special because she was the second woman sent into space by the European Space Agency and the first woman from Italy to go to space.

Cristoforetti set a record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut, spending almost 200 days in space without returning to Earth. She also held the record for the longest single space flight by a woman until other astronauts passed her record later.

In December 2021, she was named one of the most influential people in Europe by Politico Europe. In September 2022, she took command of the International Space Station during Expedition 68, showing her important role in space exploration.

Early life

Samantha Cristoforetti was born in Milan in 1977 and grew up in Malè, in Val di Sole, Trentino, Italy. As a child and teenager, she loved watching Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. These shows sparked her passion for space exploration. At 18, she joined an AFS exchange program in the US and attended Space Camp.

Career

Samantha Cristoforetti studied in Bolzano and Trento and graduated from the Technical University of Munich with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She also studied in Toulouse, France, and at the Accademia Aeronautica in Pozzuoli, becoming one of the first women to be a lieutenant and fighter pilot in the Italian Air Force. She has flown many types of military aircraft and has over 500 hours of flying time.

In ESA

Cristoforetti was chosen as an astronaut by the European Space Agency in 2009 from a group of 8000 applicants.

Expedition 42/43

On 3 July 2012, the European Space Agency announced that Cristoforetti would go on a long mission to the ISS in 2014.

On 23 November 2014, Soyuz TMA-15M, carrying Cristoforetti and two other astronauts launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It joined the International Space Station about six hours later. Cristoforetti and her crewmates came back safely from the ISS on 11 June 2015. She spent 199 days in space, setting the record for the longest single space mission by a woman at that time. Before her, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams held the record with 195 days. Later, Peggy Whitson and Christina Koch broke this record.

Cristoforetti’s first mission was called Futura. During her time there, she did many science experiments to study long stays in space and trips to the Moon and Mars. She also started a program called “Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut” for students aged 8–12 to stay active while she trained in space. She also learned about how Spirulina algae can be used as food.

Cristoforetti was planned to do spacewalks, but the equipment was lost in a failed launch in October 2014, so those plans were changed.

In April 2015, she set up the ISSpresso, the first machine to make espresso in space. She also talked to schools around the world using amateur radio.

In 2017, the European Space Agency began training with China to possibly send astronauts to China’s space station, but in 2023, ESA decided not to send astronauts there because of political and money issues.

Expedition 67/68

Cristoforetti flew to the International Space Station again in spring 2022. She went on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission began on 27 April 2022. Her second mission was called Minerva. She was the first person to make a TikTok video from the ISS, and her videos got millions of views. On 13 May 2022, she became the first astronaut to use the rHEALTH ONE, a powerful machine to study health in space.

On 21 July 2022, Cristoforetti did her first spacewalk, which lasted 7 hours and 5 minutes. She helped set up the European Robotic Arm with Oleg Artemyev. She became the first non-Russian to use the Orlan spacesuit since Michael Barratt in 2009 and the first European astronaut to do so since Jean-Pierre Haigneré in 1999.

She became the commander of ISS Expedition 68 on 28 September 2022 and returned to Earth on 14 October 2022, ending the SpaceX Crew-4 mission.

NEEMO 23

Cristoforetti led NEEMO mission 23 from 10 to 22 June 2019. This mission tested new technologies and goals for deep space and moon explorations underwater.

Personal life

Samantha Cristoforetti can speak many languages, including Italian, English, German, French, Russian, and Chinese. She is married to a French engineer named Lionel Ferra. In November 2016, she welcomed a baby girl in Cologne, Germany, and in 2021, she had a baby boy.

Cristoforetti sent a special message from the International Space Station during the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, held in Turin. She also took part in the 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.