AstroSamantha, a unique climate of collaboration on the space station VIDEO

There is no other place in the world apart from war and working in harmony: “On the International Space Station there is a unique atmosphere of cooperation” and for this reason also “I miss and will miss him”. Samantha Cristoforetti makes no secret of her nostalgia for life in orbit, four days after returning from the Minerva mission. “There I find a great determination to always put the things that unite us first. It’s an atmosphere I’ve only experienced in my life on the International Space Station,” said the ESA astronaut. 170 days of the Minerva mission for European journalists, at the press conference organized by the European Space Agency’s Astronaut Training Center in Cologne.

“Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to travel twice, it was a privilege,” It was his first words. She was greeted by the Director General of the European Space Agency, Josef Schbacher, for whom Minerva was a “fantastic mission” and the President of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Giorgio Sacuccia, for whom “Minerva’s mission was a symbol of peace.” Of “strong symbolic value in this moment of international crisis”.

AstroSamantha said she is doing well, “Maybe better than last time, it seems to me that this second time everything has become easier.” He also talked about his friendship with fellow crew members, such as his friendship with Russian Oleg Artemyev, from whom he took command of the International Space Station on September 29 and with whom he faced a spacewalk on July 21.. “He’s very generous and he’s gone through the spacewalk together and created a very strong bond,” he said.

Among the best memories, there is also the unique feeling of weightlessness and there are new records that I bring home, as the first spacewalk and the first command of the International Space Station by a European woman astronaut. Adding 170 days from her last mission to 200 from the 2014 Futura mission, she is also the second-longest woman in orbit after American Peggy Whitson.

Becoming a leader “changes not so much in day-to-day activities, but rather in responsibility if something serious happens.” It was also a fad to come back with a shrug: “It was an open question. I was wondering if I would feel nauseous when entering the sea because of the waves, but we were lucky. Then came the rescue ship which kept moving and then the helicopter again. Finally – he adds – when we landed in Jacksonville We were in contact with the mainland.

In Cologne in the coming days, the astronaut will continue to undergo physiological tests that will help collect new data to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body, but there will also be time for well-deserved rest.: “After the intense rhythm of the space mission, I will rest and spend some time with my family.” After that he will be able to come to Italy “maybe at the beginning of next year”.

Many questions about the future, from a possible trip on the Chinese space station to the moon. If “knowledge of Chinese is still not good”, then going to the moon “is not impossible, it is in the realm of possibility”, but at the moment it is “in his dreams, on a personal level”. Rather, space activities are certainly a factor of “economic growth, wealth and well-being,” with important implications for “technological skills, the ability to innovate and economic growth, in general for a country’s ability to respond to the needs of citizens.”