The European Space Agency (ESA) announced this Friday that Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will become the first European woman to command the International Space Station (ERA) in 2022.
According to ESA, this is the second astronaut mission in ERA in the service of ESA, and “thanks to her experience, she will become the first European woman to command the station.”
ESA announces that the role assigned to Samantha Cristoforetti, who will enter the ERA in 2022 aboard the ship Spacex with American astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines – the result of a “agreement in principle” concluded on May 19 by five EEI partners (European, American, Russian, Japanese and Canadian space agencies).
The exact launch date for the mission has yet to be determined.
Samantha Cristoforetti, 44, is a member of ESA’s active squad of seven astronauts and is the only woman recruited in 2008-2009.
“I look forward to using my experience in space and on Earth to lead a particularly brilliant team in orbit,” the Italian astronaut, quoted by ESA, said in a comment on his appointment as commander of the International Space Station in 2022.
Before Samantha Cristoforetti, the EEI had only four European astronauts in command, all men. The first in 2009 was the Belgian Frank De Winne.
ESA launches new campaign set of astronauts, with which he intends to increase the number of women in space and gain enhanced forces for future missions to the Moon or even Mars.
The seats are open to four to six permanent astronauts and 20 reserve astronauts, including the first time a physically challenged astronaut. The application process ends on June 18th, and the “select few” must be announced next October.
The International Space Station is a scientific laboratory and the “home” of astronauts orbiting the Earth, from where it is located at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.
Samantha Cristoforetti was the first person to prepare an espresso with a “view” of the planet at the EEI, where she first visited between 2014 and 2015 (about six months).
