Futura mission

On 23 November, Samantha Cristoforetti will fly to the International Space Station on board a Soyuz from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009, Samantha Cristoforetti joined ESA in September 2009 and completed basic astronaut training in November 2010.

In July 2012 she was assigned to an Italian Space Agency ASI mission aboard the International Space Station, to be launched on a Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2014.

This will be the second long-duration ASI mission and the eighth long-duration mission for an ESA astronaut. Samantha will be the first Italian woman to fly in space.