Samantha Cristoforetti
Samantha Cristoforetti is an ESA astronaut of Italian nationality. Between November 2014 and June 2015 she spent 199 days on board the International Space Station ISS as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 42 and 43. During her Mission entitled “Futura”, Samantha conducted countless experiments in the Station’s laboratories and set a new duration record for both longest single space flight by a woman (199 days, 16 hours) and for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight of a European astronaut. Until then, TEDxESA host André Kuipers’ second mission PromISSe was the longest spaceflight in European history.
Samantha was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. She joined the European Space Agency in September 2009 and completed basic astronaut training in November 2010. In July 2012 she was assigned to her Futura mission aboard the International Space Station ISS. Samantha is a Captain of the Italian Air Force and was born in Milan, Italy, on 26 April 1977.
Read her full biography and connect with her on various channels at samanthacristoforetti.esa.int.
Image credit: ESA/NASA.