Samantha Cristoforetti: "Having flown twice is a privilege. I will miss the Space Station"

The Space Station "

it has just returned - last October 14 - for almost six months in space, and is already looking forward to returning. 

Samantha Cristoforetti at the press conference at the ESA astronaut training center in Cologne, where she begins: "Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to have flown twice was a privilege. "

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astrosamantha press conference ESA

In orbit "A very beautiful climate"

On board the space station - says Astrosamantha - there is a very beautiful atmosphere, of harmony, of strong ties in a group that works together for the same objectives "and putting" in front of the things that unite , and apart from what is conflictual ". Thus the astronaut of the European Space Agency, just returned from his second mission on the international space station Minerva:" The space station I miss and will miss, I spent a year there in almost two missions ", he explains, adding that"

".        

That time spent in deep space, outside the spaceship

"I stayed focused on work in the almost 7 hours out" but then there was "20 minutes" to "enjoy being out there", continues Samantha Cristoforetti, "from the point from a physical point of view the Russian suit is very stiff, and it was tiring to work in. Plus it is one size, and I am at the low limit of height ", so" it was a great physical challenge ". 

 "It was an intense and challenging experience from many points of view"

Astrosamantha's latest mission

Samantha Cristoforetti returned to Earth together with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, thus ending her second mission on the International Space Station, called Minerva, which lasted almost six months, living and working in orbits as members of the ISS Expedition 67.

The ESA astronaut and other crew members, known as Crew-4, have returned aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft, which

. 

After completing a series of de-orbit burns, Freedom entered Earth's atmosphere by deploying her parachutes for a soft ditch off the coast of Florida.

As part of the Minerva mission, Cristoforetti conducted numerous European experiments and many other international experiments in a microgravity environment.

at ESA's European Astronaut Training Center (EAC) and the German Aerospace Center's "Envihab" facility (DLR). ).