1977: A Record-Setting Astronaut is Born in Italy

April 26, 1977

Samantha Cristoforetti, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, was born in the major Italian city of Milan. She grew up in Malé, a commune (municipality) that is likewise located in the northern region of Italy. Cristoforetti traveled to the United States at the age of 18 as an exchange student in the American Field Service (AFS), which is now known as AFS Intercultural Programs. During her year as an AFS student, she attended Space Camp at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

In 2001, Cristoforetti graduated from the Technical University of Munich with a degree in mechanical engineering (with specializations in both aerospace propulsion and lightweight structures). She subsequently attended the University of Naples Federico II at the Italian Air Force Academy as an officer candidate. Cristoforetti graduated from there in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics sciences. She subsequently took part in Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. Cristoforetti ultimately became one of the first women in the Italian Air Force to serve as a lieutenant and fighter pilot.  

A new chapter in Cristoforetti’s life opened in May 2009, when ESA selected her as an astronaut candidate from a pool of 8,000 applicants. She completed her basic training as an astronaut in November of the following year.

Cristoforetti was the first Italian woman to travel into space and second only to Claudie Haigneré of France as the first female ESA astronaut to make such a journey. (Haigneré’s trip into space as part of ESA occurred in 1999.) Cristoforetti made her first spaceflight as part of the Soyuz TMA-15M mission. This mission began on November 23, 2014, when Cristoforetti and two other astronauts on board the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This Soyuz-FG docked at the International Space Station (ISS) six hours later. Cristoforetti and both of her crewmates remained there for 199 days and 16 hours before returning to Earth.  

As a result of this mission, Cristoforetti set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. This record was broken in 2017 by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson after she stayed in space for 289 days; the current record belongs to NASA astronaut Christina Koch for accumulating 328 days in space by the time she returned to Earth in 2020.

One of Cristoforetti’s most memorable moments during the Soyuz TMA-15M mission took place after actor Leonard Nimoy — best known as the part-Vulcan, part-human Starfleet officer named Mr. Spock in the TV series Star Trek — passed away on February 27, 2015. As shown in the accompanying photo, Cristoforetti paid tribute to Nimoy by wearing a Starfleet pin on her shirt and giving Spock’s iconic Vulcan salute.

Cristoforetti made her next flight into space in 2022 as part of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission. She and this mission’s three other astronauts on board the spacecraft Crew Dragon were launched on April 27 of that year from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During her time at the ISS this time around, Cristoforetti became the first astronaut to operate the rHEALTH ONE. Her pioneering use of this state-of-the-art biomedical analyzer helped pave the way for better assessing and addressing potential medical conditions in space that range from bone loss to circadian rhythm disturbances.

It was also during this mission that Cristoforetti completed her first spacewalk, which lasted a total of seven hours and five minutes. The timeframe for the mission in its entirety was 170 days, 13 hours, and three minutes.

Cristoforetti’s other accomplishments in her role as an astronaut have included serving as the commander for NASA’s 23^rd Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO23). This mission involved a 10-day stay in Aquarius, the world’s only undersea research station, in 2019.

Sergio Mattarella, president of Italy, awarded Cristoforetti with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (their country’s highest-ranking honor), on July 16, 2015. Mattarella proclaimed at the time, “She has been followed with affection and love by all Italians.” In December 2021, the news organization Politico Europe highlighted Cristoforetti in its annual list of the 28 most influential people in Europe.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on Samantha Cristoforetti, please check out https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2015/06/Interview_with_Samantha_after_landing and https://blogs.esa.int/exploration/category/astronauts/samantha-cristoforetti/