WUNRN
ITALY’S FIRST FEMALE ASTRONAUT ARRIVES SAFELY AT NASA SPACE STATION
Italian Astronaut
Samantha Cristoforetti
Italian
Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti
November 23, 2014
- Moscow (AFP) - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Italy's first female
astronaut has safely docked with the International Space Station, NASA said.
Samantha
Cristoforetti, along with Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and American
astronaut Terry Virts, arrived at the orbiting space lab on the Soyuz
TMA-15M spacecraft at 0249 GMT Monday, NASA said.
"A new
vehicle has arrived. The Soyuz is confirmed as attached properly," high
above the Pacific Ocean, NASA television added.
Cristoforetti,
Virts and Shkaplerov docked just under six hours after taking off from Russia's
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are to stay at the space station until
May 2015.
Their
voyage will mean major food upgrades for the astronauts aboard, with
nearly a kilo of caviar in their baggage and an espresso machine.
"There will
be 15 boxes of 30 grammes each of caviar, but also apples, oranges, tomatoes
and 140 doses of freeze dried milk and black tea without sugar," a space
station official was quoted as saying by Russian press agency TASS.
Astronauts on the
station will also finally be able to enjoy a decent brew thanks to the
20-kilogramme machine designed by famed Italian coffee makers Lavazza and
engineering firm Argotec, which specialises in making space food.
Cristoforetti, 37,
who is also a captain in the Italian air force, "will be not only the
first female astronaut from Italy to go into space, but also the very first
astronaut in the history of the conquest of space to savour an authentic
Italian espresso in orbit," the two companies said in a statement.
In total 16
countries work on the ISS, including Russia and the United States, which
finances most of its operation. A team of astronauts is always aboard, with
stays of up to six months.
Launched into
orbit in 1998, this outpost and orbiting laboratory, which cost $500 billion
(404 billion euros) to build, saw its lifespan extended by another four years
by NASA. It's now expected to remain in service until 2024.
NASA depends
entirely on Russia to send its astronauts to the ISS, which costs the United
States $70 million (56 million euros) per person in Soyuz rockets.