On February 5, 2015 I attended an ARISS radio contact of an Italian school with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station.

As a space enthuasiast the first student to ask a question to Cristoforetti, Elena Selmi, was thrilled at the opportunity to talk that day, her 13th birthday, with the first Italian woman in space. Which left Selmi stunned and speechless when Cristoforetti, before answering, wished her happy birthday from space.

Selmi eventually graduated in physics at Oxford and now works on the Bepi Colombo ESA mission to Mercury. At 24 she is the youngest Young Graduate Trainee staff member at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid. This ARISS article tells the full story in English (text in the second post of this thread).

https://www.ariss.org

The AstronautiCAST space podcast I co-host interviewed Selmi in Italian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm85aAhv0ww

This article in Italian I wrote that day in 2015 has a photo of Selmi and a video of the ARISS contact:

https://www.astronautinews.it/2015/02/samantha-cristoforetti-contatto-radio-con-gli-studenti-milanesi

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#ariss #iss #space #AstroSamantha #astronaut

I enjoyed the talk ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti gave at Focus Live 2025, a science outreach event at the science and technology museum in Milan, Italy. Here are my photos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FeB7MQLN2342MSPdA

#AstroSamantha #astronaut

Un ricordo del primo lancio di Samantha Cristoforetti 10 anni fa oggi e il mio contributo al suo diario di bordo della missione Futura.

https://journal.paoloamoroso.com/paoloamoroso/samantha-cristoforettis-logbook

#AstroSamantha #spazio #astronauti

Ten years ago today my astronaut friend Samantha Cristoforetti was launched into space for her first mission. Since before the launch I joined Samantha on an exciting outreach mission to share her adventure with the public.

https://journal.paoloamoroso.com/paoloamoroso/samantha-cristoforettis-logbook

#AstroSamantha #space #astronaut

Guardando alcune foto NASA ho trovato questo curioso scatto di Samantha Cristoforetti nella missione Minerva.

https://images.nasa.gov/details/iss068e005884

#AstroSamantha #iss #spazio

Due anni fa in questi giorni ero in Florida con alcuni amici di ISAA per vedere il lancio di Crew-4 con a bordo Samantha Cristoforetti. Queste sono le mie foto di quell'avventura in cui abbiamo visitato il Kennedy Space Center e altri luoghi legati allo spazio.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SvRAMJCqoib9WTLb8

#spazio #ksc #AstroSamantha

La mia tessera ISAA 2024 con le patch delle missioni di Samantha Cristoforetti.

Cosa hanno in comune? Lo sapete?

#TesserISAA #ISAA #AstroSamantha

I finally put together a photo album of my April 2022 trip to Florida to see the launch of Crew-4, the flight that carried my astronaut friend Samantha Cristoforetti to space for the second time:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SvRAMJCqoib9WTLb8

This short account of the trip provides some context:

https://journal.paoloamoroso.com/a-dream-trip-to-the-space-coast

#space #AstroSamantha #ksc

Two more items of my tiny space museum, the mission patches astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti gave me of her space flights. At left the patch of the Soyuz TMA-15M flight in 2014-15, at right the one of the Minerva mission in 2022.

#space #astrosamantha