The spacecraft has been on a seven-year journey.

OSIRIS-REx, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, is NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission. “Just as our meticulous planning and rehearsal prepared us to collect a sample from Bennu, we have honed our skills for sample recovery.” “I am immensely proud of the efforts our team has poured into this endeavor,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona in Tucson, in a statement. But if the capsule crash-lands and pops open, the sample could become contaminated. When not travelling for work, Samantha lives with her partner Lionel and their two children, Kelsi Amel and Dorian Lev, near ESA’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.The mission’s original goal was to retrieve a pristine asteroid sample. Learn more about Samantha’s Minerva mission in this brochure. She landed safely back on Earth on 14 October 2022. Samantha also carried out her first spacewalk, and the first conducted by a European woman, and became the fifth European and the first European female commander of the International Space Station during her mission. During her time on board, Samantha supported numerous European and international experiments in orbit. This segment includes the US, European, Japanese and Canadian modules and components of the Space Station. On Station, she was USOS Lead, responsible for all activities within the US Orbital Segment for the duration of her mission. For both the flights to and from the Station, Samantha was serving as a mission specialist. She was launched in a new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule named Freedom alongside her Crew-4 crew mates, NASA astronauts Bob 'Farmer' Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica 'Watty' Watkins. Samantha returned to the International Space Station for her second mission, Minerva, on 27 April 2022. The mission, which was given the name Futura, was the second long-duration flight opportunity for the Italian Space Agency, and the eighth for an ESA astronaut. She returned to Earth on 11 June 2015, after spending 200 days in space. On 23 November 2014, Samantha was launched from the cosmodrome of Baikonur in Kazakhstan. In March 2012, Samantha was assigned to fly as flight engineer on the Soyuz TMA-15M as part of the crew of Expedition 42/43 for her first mission to the International Space Station. In 2019, Samantha served as commander for NASA’s 23rd Extreme Environment Mission Operations ( NEEMO23) mission during a 10-day stay in the world’s only undersea research station, Aquarius. This was the first joint training of Chinese and non-Chinese astronauts in China. In 2017, together with fellow ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, she took part in a sea survival exercise organised by the Astronaut Center of China in the Yellow Sea.

Samantha was also part of a working group tasked with liaising with Chinese counterparts to define and implement cooperation in the field of astronaut operations. She then served for two years as crew representative for ESA in the Gateway project to establish a staging post around the Moon, providing expertise on crew systems and habitability aspects for the ESA-provided I-Hab module. For several years she led the Spaceship EAC initiative, a student-centred team working on the technological challenges of future missions to the Moon. She was then assigned to the role of ESA reserve astronaut, which allowed her to earn her initial qualifications in EVA and robotics, as well as certification as flight engineer of the Russian spacecraft Soyuz.Īfter completing post-flight tasks for her Futura Mission, Samantha was given technical and management duties at the European Astronaut Centre, which included serving on technical evaluation boards for exploration-related projects. She joined ESA in September 2009, and completed her basic astronaut training in November 2010. Samantha was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. Upon her return to Italy, she was assigned to fly the AM-X ground attack fighter at the 51st Bomber Wing in Istrana. Following her graduation in 2005, she attended the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program at Sheppard Air Force Base in the United States, where she earned her fighter pilot wings in 2006. She was admitted to the Air Force Academy as an officer candidate, and served as class leader for four years. In 2001, Samantha joined the Italian Air Force.

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