EverySpace Magazine interview: Samantha Cristoforetti by Cristina Riso, Dario De Angelis, and Alessandro Menchinelli Students of Aerospace Engineering
Translation by Claudia Alvarenga
After a long a struggling training, before many emotions and risks, at the launch, there is a moment when you think : “Why am I doing this?” . After 20 years from his mission, Franco Malerba, the first Italian astronaut aboard the International Space Station, has no doubts : “No”, he replies, “what you think is : finally!”. The anniversary of his historical launch, together with the celebration of 50 years of Italian and American cooperation, have represented a chance to open the new Italian Space Agency in Rome, on the 25th of July 2012 and celebrate how space missions’ past, present and future is “blue” , not only like astronauts’ uniforms’ color. Many people have taken part to this event, such as ASI’s (Italian Space Agency) president Enrico Saggese, who resumed the stages of the “italian” conquer of space, Lory Garver, NASA’s Deputy Administrator, who expressed her gratitude towards our country for what done in the last 50 years, wishing for a such long collaboration in the future, the Minister of Science and Education Profumo and almost everyone in the Italian astronauts team. In order, Franco Malerba, Maurizio Cheli, Umberto Guidoni and Roberto Vittori (except Paolo Nespoli, who wasn’t there), have told about their launch experiences and what has guided them in reaching their goal, while the “new” members of the team, Luca Parmitano (connected from Houston, where he’s currently training) and Samantha Cristoforetti, have described their training for future missions, respectively expected in middle 2013 and the end of 2014. In such occasion, at the end of the celebrations, we met Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian women astronaut in history, to ask her some questions.
Samantha talking at the conference.
Samantha during an interview.
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ESMI- #3