The only flaw in this cosplay is the hair, European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti joked.
The Italian astronaut posed on the International Space Station in much the same way as Sandra Bullock, who fictionally visited the track complex in the 2013 film “GravityCristoforetti wore a similar outfit to Bullock, who played the fictional NASA astronaut Ryan Stone in a thrilling adventure sparked by a cloud of space debris that hit Stone’s space shuttle onscreen.
“Hey, Dr. Stone! Quick question for you. How did you get your hair to stay put? #AskingForAFriend‘ said Cristoforetti into her… tweet (opens in new tab) with the image, posted June 19 after a screening of the science fiction adventure on the ISS.
Related† Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti makes history with 1st TikTok from the International Space Station
In fact, her cosplay was so complex that it took at least seven years to accomplish, as fellow astronaut Scott Kelly, formerly of NASA, shared on Twitter. Kelly tried to snap a photo of Cristoforetti in the same pose during his one year mission in 2014-15, but lost the chance by a fluke.
“Here’s the original photo failed,” Kelly wrote on Twitter (opens in new tab) with the undated attempt sometime during his mission, showing Bullock perfectly on screen – but missing Cristoforetti completely.
He called the “failure” one of the biggest regrets of his latest mission in space, noting that he waited too late to grab the camera after Cristoforetti flew by in sportswear, presumably on his way to do something else. (Astronauts have very tight schedules in space to make the most of their time there, although NASA gives them time off for mental health reasons.)
“So disappointed then, but now all is well. Thanks, Samantha,” Kelly said on June 19. (Luckily, Cristoforetti accomplished another great cosplay during that period as a “Star Trek” astronauthowever.)
The long gap between spaceflight capabilities is not uncommon. ISS astronauts need about two to 2.5 years of mission training before being launched for a long-term mission, which usually lasts about six months. It also takes about a day on Earth to recover for every day in space.
These timelines together mean that there could be a gap of 3 to 3.5 years between individual missions for an astronaut at best. However, that number doesn’t take into account the limited number of seats available on spacecraft to put humans into orbit, which could reduce flight capabilities.
The flight frequency of astronauts also depends on how much their original space agency contributes to the ISS agreement; lucky for Cristoforetti, the European Space Agency (ESA) is one of the largest contributors after NASA and Russia.
Cristoforetti also took some time between space visits to lead a nearly two-week underwater mission known as NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) 23 in June 2019, which required its own training cycle and recovery.
Given all these factors, Cristoforetti’s return to space took place as part of Expedition 67 (which is underway) seven years after completing her first, nearly 200-day space stay in 2014-15 with Expeditions 42 and 43.
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