Paris. Italian Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European astronaut to go into space from the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, according to a video sent by NASA.
His mission, together with the Russian Oleg Artemiev, about 400 kilometers from the earth’s surface, began at 15:00 GMT for an expected duration of seven hours.
Both had to perform various tasks related to the Russian scientific module Nauka and particularly with the new robotic arm ERA (European Robotic Arm).
That 11-meter-long arm, which was put into orbit in July 2021, after several delays, has been attached to the Russian module of the ISS.
The ERA can be commanded from inside or outside the space station for maintenance or to equip the ISS.
This joint departure of the Italian astronaut, formed by the European Space Agency, and the Russian cosmonaut is the third mission to fine-tune the ERA.
The European robotic arm is in the middle of a political controversy, after the ESA announced that it was going to stop its collaboration with the Russian agency for the ExoMars mission due to the invasion of Ukraine.
In retaliation, Russian space agency chief Dmitri Rogozin “ordered” Russian cosmonauts on the ISS to stop work on the ERA.
Rogozin was ousted last Friday by President Vladimir Putin and cooperation has resumed.
Samantha Cristoforetti, a 45-year-old engineer and fighter pilot, has traveled to space twice. She arrived at the ISS on April 27 and holds the record for the longest duration in space on a mission for a woman, with a total of 199 days in orbit, between 2014 and 2015.
#exit #space #European #astronaut #ISS