Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti landed today in her Soyuz descent module on a desert steppe in Kazakhstan having broken the world record for the longest serving female astronaut in space, spending 200 days on the ISS. The record was previously held at 195 days by NASA astronaut Suni Williams. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut became the first Italian woman in space, launching to the ISS on 23 November 2014 . Her return, along with crewmates NASA astronaut Terry Virts and Russian commander Anton Shkaplerov, was delayed from May due to an incident with the Russian Progress 59 resupply mission. Samantha wasn’t disappointed by the delay tweeting, “Looks like it’s not time to get my spacesuit ready yet… what a present! #MoreTimeInSpace.”
Samantha also spoke to Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon whilst on the ISS, posting a video thanking her female friends for their support whilst she was on the ISS and thanking Susan discussing for her interest in girls in STEM and commitment to help girls find their way to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math[s], “..maybe in the future we can event work together to help sparkle that passion and interest for STEM and to show that no dream is too big”.
Maybe in the future we can work together to help sparkle that passion and interest for STEM and to show that no dream is too big. – Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon
I had the pleasure of working with Samantha whilst I was based at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre and DLR (German Aerospace Centre). She is a true role model with the ability to speak 5 languages fluently and was the first women to be a lieutenant and fighter pilot in the Italian Air Force, accumulating over 500 hours of flying time, prior to being selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009. Samantha has been tweeting regularly during her stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and posting some stunning images of the Earth. Hopefully her story will encourage girls to follow her footsteps and go on to beat her record during a future mission to Mars!