AstroSamantha Returns Home After 6 Months

Lthe joy of hugging family and friends again and that of seeing the colors of nature again, but also a bit of nostalgia for the indescribable view of the Earth from space.

After the six months of the Minerva mission, the astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, returns home with other records collected in this, her second time among the stars. With her, her companions from the Crew 4 crew, with whom she shared the long period on the International Space Station (ISS): the Americans Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins, all from NASA.

They were months of work at a fast pace, but there were also moments of relaxation that finished cementing already solid friendships. AstroSamantha spoke several times about the strong bonds between colleagues, including those of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, while on Earth the war in Ukraine was making its full weight felt, with the stop to collaboration programs with Russia by the space agencies of Europe and the United States.

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Much scientific activity was conducted on board, especially within the European Columbus laboratory, with the many experiments of the Minerva mission, six of which were by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). AstroSamantha studied the effects of weightlessness on the female reproductive system and on the characteristics of Italian extra virgin olive oil and also dedicated a lot of time to connections with schools and talking to kids about the value and beauty of science.

The positive balance of the six months in space also included two important records, both long-awaited and confirmed when hopes seemed to vanish. The first was the spacewalk, which last July 21st made AstroSamantha the first European to undertake an extravehicular activity (EVA); the second was the command of the Space Station, initially announced, then toned down and made concrete on September 28. AstroSamantha thus also became the first European astronaut to have this role.

Before that, she had been the leader of the American Orbital Segment, which includes the American, European and Canadian modules and components of the Space Station. The assignment lasted just 15 days, after which it was time to return home. She then handed over the command to her Russian colleague Sergey Prokopyev, who now leads the six members of Expedition 68 who will continue to work on the Space Station: Russians Dmitry Petelin and Anna Kikina, Americans Francisco Rubio, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, and Japanese Koichi Wakata. They are colleagues and friends who will be missed. AstroSamantha and will miss the extraordinary sights of Earth.

“I will miss this view,” the astronaut wrote in his tweet accompanied by photos of him looking at the Earth from the Cupola, the large panoramic window of the Space Station. Also before leaving, he published a video of the Earth at night with the lights that outline the coasts and that are more concentrated and intense in correspondence with the large cities.

“Fly like me one last time!” he wrote. “Goodbye and, as always, thanks for all the fish!” he added, quoting one of his favorite books, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.