Samantha Cristoforetti became the new commander of the International Space Station (ISS). She is the first European woman ever to take on the role, fittingly TGCOM24, quoted by Rador.

The handover of the baton between the current Russian commander Oleg Artemyev and the astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) – the same one with whom Cristoforetti “walked” among the stars on July 22 – took place by exchanging a brass key.

Artemyev’s traditional handing over of keys

Since the start of her Minerva mission in April 2022, Cristoforetti has been responsible for the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), where she was tasked with overseeing activities in the station’s US, European, Japanese and Canadian modules and components.

With this new position, she will become the fifth European commander (Europe’s first woman) of the space station, following in the footsteps of former ESA astronauts Frank De Winne, Alexander Hirst, Luca Parmitano and Thomas Pesquet.

The full title of the post is crew commander of the International Space Station. Command positions are assigned based on joint decisions of NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), Jaxa (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).

ESA is represented in this selection process by European Astronaut Center Director and ISS Program Manager Frank De Winn.

“This role is fundamental to the continued success of the space station,” ESA officials said.

While flight directors in control centers oversee the planning and execution of station operations, the commander “is responsible for the performance and well-being of the crew in orbit, must maintain effective communication with ground commands, and must coordinate crew actions in the event of an emergency.”

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