Samantha Cristoforetti spacesuit portrait

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was born in 1977 in Milan, Italy. Her Futura mission is set for launch November 2014.

In this portrait Samantha is wearing a NASA Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) she will use if assigned a spacewalk.

Samantha was a fighter pilot in the Italian air force before joining ESA’s astronaut corps in 2009. She will be the third astronaut of ESA’s new recruits to fly in space. She is fluent in many languages and her trip to the Station will be the 42nd expedition.

During the six months she stays on the space laboratory she will run new international experiments and continue the research of her astronaut colleagues.