For the first time, a European woman will become the commander of the ISS

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoferetti will head the International Space Station in connection with the return to Earth of the current commander Oleg Artemiev.

According to the European Space Agency, on September 28, the Russian will symbolically hand over the keys to the station to her.

Previously, women (all of them were Americans) and four Europeans, one of whom also had American citizenship, became ISS commanders three times.

Samantha Christopheretti is the first European astronaut to go into outer space from the ISS in a Russian space suit. During her last visit to the ISS, she set a flight duration record among all women (later broken by American Peggy Whitson) and all astronauts of the European Space Agency.