Samantha Cristoforetti, first European astronaut to perform a spacewalk

Samantha Cristoforetti becomes the first European woman to perform a spacewalk while carrying out work outside the International Space Station (ISS).

Around 4:00 p.m., Spanish peninsular time, she begins the path in which she will be accompanied by cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and which can last up to seven hours.

During the live broadcast, they will be able to tell apart because Cristoforetti will be wearing a space suit with blue stripes, while Artemyev's will be adorned with red stripes.

These astronauts will work together on various tasks, such as the installation of platforms and workstation hardware that is mounted on the Nauka laboratory module, funded by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

The walk of the Italian pilot is a milestone for the European Space Agency (ESA), but it is far from the achievement of the US that in 2019 put NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir to carry out a space walk together.

ESA is very concerned about the lack of diversity in its workforce, as Cristoforetti is the agency's only female astronaut.

Right now, she is in the middle of choosing new astronauts, which will end at the end of the year, and one of the goals is to recruit women to travel to the Moon.

The Italian astronaut and the Russian cosmonaut will deploy ten nanosatellites in the following hours with the aim of collecting electronic radio data along the way.

In addition, they will place a telescopic arm from Zarya, a module that was the first component launched for the International Space Station, to Poisk, another module launched in 2009. In this way, they intend to help future spacewalks.

a robotic arm

It is the third tour that includes tasks related to the preparation of the European robotic arm for the first operations in Neuka.

Cristoforetti and Artemyev will be in charge of moving its external control panel, working on the insulation and installing a temporary adapter point for the robotic arm.

This arm brings new ways to operate automated machines to the orbital complex.

In this way, it will be able to perform multiple tasks automatically or semi-automatically, it can be directed from inside or outside the ISS and it can be controlled directly or in a programmed way.

Cristoforetti will be tasked with making sure the window guard on the arm camera unit is clear enough to allow a laser light to guide the arm so it can be grabbed and moved.

Samantha Cristoforetti was born in Milan in 1977. In 2001 she joined the Italian Air Force and eight years later she was selected as an astronaut at the European Space Agency (ESA).

In 2014, she launched from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, under the umbrella of her first mission, called

.

In all, she spent 200 days in space as a flight engineer.

At that time, she assured that she does not like “the imposition” in gender issues: “men are always individuals;

women, an indefinite mass.

When I read phrases like 'we women', I always wonder why that woman gives herself the right to speak on my behalf”.

But she admitted the importance of having role models: “After all, when I was young, I was also more interested in the stories of the astronauts”

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the ISS HAM radio.ESA/NASA

On that first mission, he ran experiments in the Station's laboratories.

Her experience of being selected, trained and then flying on her first space mission is recounted in her book

, the proceeds of which are donated to UNICEF.

After various projects, at the end of April 2022 she returned to the Space Station for her second mission, called

In this program, Cristoforetti is the USOS leader, responsible for all activities within the US orbital segment, for the duration of the mission.

The astronaut is active on social networks, from where she posts photos and videos where she shows part of her experience and explains curious aspects, from how photos are taken in space, how she trains or runs, even answering questions of her followers.

Spacewalking is also known as extravehicular activity or EVA.

In 1965, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who passed away in 2019, performed the first spacewalk.

Since then numerous astronauts have succeeded him.

Women too.

In 2019, when the NASA pair went on their joint spacewalk, it became a milestone in equality between astronauts.

Christina Koch was the fourteenth woman to do a spacewalk, and this was her fourth walk, while Jessica Meir debuted outside the International Space Station (ISS), being the fifteenth woman to do so.

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