On November 23, 2014, from Baikonur space base, Kazakhstan, the first Italian astronaut went to Space. Samantha Cristoforetti, who else? With her were a Russian and an American. Departure at 10pm, twenty minutes later the Soyuz was in orbit and the capsule detached. Destination the International Space Station, where she would have had to stay 6 months to carry out the experiments of the Futura mission (she will stay a little longer).
That day Cristoforetti he was 37 years old, he was captain of the Air Force and was about to become one of the most popular and appreciated Italian public figures thanks to an intelligent use of social media. In particular of Twitter, used for the first time to take us aboard the ISS. It was understood already on the day of the launch that it would not be any mission from the point of view of communication. Before leaving he had said that he had taken his longest shower ever (“Russian good judgment has planned to allow time to do this in the #NoRushOnLaunchDay program! #NoRushOnLaunchDay”). Then he shared his playlist of songs all on the same theme: I will go up by Daniele Silvestri, then Don’t Stop me now by Queen, e Get the party started in Pink e Learning to fly by Pink Floyd (but once aboard the ISS he will tell us that he celebrated with the Black Eyed Peas: “I gotta feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night”, that is, “That tonight will be a good night”).
On the collective blog of the Space Agency Outpost42 (yes, it’s inspired by the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), will write that he has set up an automatic reply for emails: “I’m sorry, I’m off the planet for a while”. And after the thanks to all those who had supported her to get there, she wrote: “I go into Space with all of myself, with all that I am and that I have experienced, and I certainly carry with me every person I have met. “. It will be a huge success.
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