Cristoforetti starts her Minerva mission on the ISS

The day long awaited by Samantha Cristoforetti has finally arrived: the Italian astronaut took part in her second space mission on April 28 thanks to the contribution of the International Space Station, in charge of the project. The European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and her NASA colleagues Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, better known as the Crew-4, landed at the ISS after blasting off  last Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The mission, known as Minerva, will last 6 months for the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Cristoforetti that in this period will live with other 11 astronauts already on the Space Agency after then return shortly to earth together with the 3 companions and Mathias Maurer, another germany’s ESA astronaut. During the period that will pass into orbit, our compatriot Cristoforetti will participate in more than 35 tests and experiments commissioned by European and international institutions and she will also holds the role of US Orbital Segment (USOS) lead, responsible for operations within the US, European, Japanese and Canadian modules and the components of the Space Station. For Cristoforetti, better known for its Twitter’s nickname @AstroSamantha, it is already the second mission in space since it had already taken part in another very important expedition between 2014 and 2015, known as Futurama Mission, that had allowed him to achieve the much coveted fame in the international arena.