First European female astronaut to command International Space Station
The European Space Agency has confirmed that the Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will be the first European woman to command
[May 29, 2021: Daniel Bellamy]
The European Space Agency has confirmed that the Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will be the first European woman to command the International Space Station.
She enters a rare club: fewer than 600 astronauts have travelled in space and only about ten percent of them have been women.
Cristoforetti is affectionately known in her home country as 'AstroSamantha' or "AstroSam".
ESA astronaut @AstroSamantha Cristoforetti is named to serve as @Space_Station commander on Expedition 68, following an in-principle agreement by international partners on 19 May. As part of #Crew4, Samantha will fly on a @SpaceX #CrewDragon in 2022 ?https://t.co/XWin3BnInK pic.twitter.com/kMtXswUvUD
— ESA (@esa) May 28, 2021
She was the first Italian woman in space and only the third woman in the world to have spent time on the station.
And at 199 days and 16 hours, Cristoforetti also holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut.
America's NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos, Japan’s JAXA, Canada’s CSA and the European Space Agency decide by consensus which astronaut will lead the station.
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