Samantha Cristoforetti

Samantha Cristoforetti ( born April 26, 1977 in Milan ) is an officer of the Italian Air Force and a member of the European Astronaut Corps.

Life

Study

Cristoforetti studied at the Technical University of Munich, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l' Aéronautique et de l' Espace in Toulouse and the Mendeleev Russian University of Chemistry and Technology in Moscow Engineering and Aeronautics and Astronautics. In both subjects the master at the University of Naples took place.

Air force

Cristoforetti in 2001 was held in the Italian Air Force and studied at the Air Force Academy Pozzuoli, which she completed in 2005. After that, she was educated at the Sheppard Air Force Base for a fighter pilot. After graduating, she served from 2006 when Squadron 51 º Stormo Ferruccio Serafini in Istrana and from 2008 in the 32 ° Stormo " Armando Boetto " in Amendola.

Space travel

Cristoforetti sat in the selection of the ESA against 8400 other candidates by and was on May 20, 2009 in Paris, presented as the only woman among the six new astronauts of the European Astronaut Corps of the public.

On 3 July 2012, the ESA announced that Cristoforetti will start in 2014 to a long-term stay on the ISS. She is a member of the ISS Expeditions 42 and 43

Private

Her hobbies include mountain climbing, scuba diving, the Chinese language and caving.