Samantha Cristoforetti

Samantha Cristoforetti (born 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the second woman sent into space by ESA and the first from Italy. Cristoforetti holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut, and she held the record for the longest single space flight by a woman until this was broken by Peggy Whitson in June 2017, and later by Christina Koch. She took command of ISS Expedition 68 on 28 September 2022.