ISS: a new crew, a coffee machine and caviar!

Successful docking to 400 km above our heads! A new crew landed on the night of Sunday to Monday aboard the International Space Station. Among the newcomers, the first Italian woman to go into space, Samantha Cristoforettti.

A Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and an American astronaut Terry Virts traveled with him in the Russian Soyuz capsule. All three will live aboard the ISS for six months. They join an American and two Russians already there. In their luggage, including nearly a pound of caviar, but also apples, oranges, and black tea. Launch in 1998, the ISS is scheduled to remain operational until 2024.

Samantha Cristoforetti, 37, is the first Italian to set foot on board the ISS. Recruited in 2009 by the European Space Agency, the pilot of the polyglot Air Force is the third woman astronaut ESA. It will be the first to enjoy an espresso coffee. Indeed, it has brought with it a machine twenty pounds weightlessness special, called "ISS presso".