The Italian astronaut will be the second woman appointed as commander of the space platform
In the more than 20-year history of the International Space Station, the platform has been almost always in the hands of men. In 2007, after almost a decade of adventures, the American Peggy Whitson she became the first woman to take command of this project. Now, as announced on Wednesday by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti will become the second woman to be appointed commander of the orbital complex and the first european astronaut in taking office.
“I am very honored by this appointment as commander“, declared Cristoforetti (Milan, 1977) after the news was announced. From now on, and while it remains in orbit, the Italian will have to assume key tasks for the success of the mission such as control of the crew performance and welfarethe management of communication with the control teams on Earth and the coordination of the response in the event of an emergency.
Cristoforetti will officially take over of the space station – the largest man-made object in space and the largest man-made satellite ever launched – the Wednesday, September 28 after the traditional handover ceremony. During the event, which will be broadcast via ‘streaming’ through the platforms of various space agencies, the Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, Until now he was commander, will symbolically hand over the ‘keys’ that control the space platform.
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Samantha Cristoforetti will be there third european astronaut to be named commander of the International Space Station. Before her, the position had also fallen to the Italian Luca Parmitano and the Frenchman Thomas Pesquet. As explained by the director general of the ESA, Josef Aschbacher, the appointment of the Italian is a shows “the faith and courage” that international partners awarded to European astronauts.
The appointment of the commander has been agreed between representatives of all countries involved in this international space project, including NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). “samantha has our full support to play this important leadership role,” argued Frank De Winnehead of the European Astronaut Center and director of the International Space Station Program.