Samantha Cristoforetti
Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian ESA astronaut, engineer, former Italian Air Force pilot, and one of Europe's most prominent long-duration station astronauts. She was selected in ESA's 2009 astronaut class and became the first Italian woman in space.
- Born
- April 26, 1977
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Milan, Lombardy,Italy
Flights
2
Spacewalks
1
EVA time
7 hours, 5 minutes
In space
370 days, 5 hours, 45 minutes
Bio
Cristoforetti studied engineering across Europe, including at the Technical University of Munich and the University of Naples Federico II, then trained as an Italian Air Force pilot. Her operational background combined military aviation, languages, engineering, and science communication before astronaut selection.
Her first mission launched on Soyuz TMA-15M in 2014 and lasted almost 200 days, setting a then-record for longest single mission by a woman and a European astronaut. Her second flight launched on SpaceX Crew-4 in 2022 for ESA's Minerva mission.
numbers belong inside the two transport mission cards, not as separate flights. Cristoforetti's completed record is two spaceflights, one , and more than 370 days in space.