Rome: Samantha Cristoforetti is going to become the first European woman astronaut to command the International Space Station. The European Space Agency (ESA) announced this on Wednesday 14th of September.
Cristoforetti belongs to Italy where she is known as AstroSam and will take over the charge of the International Space Station from 67 crew member Oleg Artemyev on 28 September in a handing over ceremony to be telecast live on ESA Web TV.
Samantha Cristoforetti also holds the record for the longest single space flight
by a woman! Cristoforetti will become the fifth European commander of the ISS as
well as becoming the first European woman to hold the position.
Samantha expressed
her feeling of gratitude as under:
“I am
humbled by my appointment to the position of commander and look forward to
drawing on the experience I’ve gained in space and on Earth to lead a very
capable team in orbit.”
Samantha Cristoforetti is 45 years old, she is Italy’s first woman in space, and she will
be the third woman commander of the International Space Station in the world. Before
her, Sunita Williams and Shannon Walker performed this duty of commanding
the ISS, both relating to the United States of America.
Read more: women in space
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