Photo by NASA Johnson on Flickr.com
Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian astronaut, became the first woman in Europe to take full control of the international space station. A ceremony was organized to honor this on the International Space Station.
Following Frank De Winne, Alexander Gerst, Luca Parmitano, and Thomas Pesquet as the fourth European commander of the ISS, Cristoforetti, 45, replaced Oleg Artemyev on Wednesday.
Her responsibilities will be to keep in touch with the teams on Earth and to plan the crew’s emergency actions. According to the European Space Agency, she will also be responsible for the performance and health of the astronauts in space (ESA).
