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Italy Sends Its First Female Astronaut Into Space

Also its first espresso machine.
​Image: NASA/ESA

​I think we can all agree that cultural stereotyping is usually a bad thing. But it's pretty damn charming that a 44-pound, specially-designed espresso machine is being sent to the International Space Station this weekend. It will be shepherded into space by Samantha Cristoforetti, the first female Italian astronaut, whose biography sounds less like a stereotype and more like a Platonic ideal for an international space traveler.

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Cristoforetti's education spans four countries, having studied at the Technische Universität in Munich, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace in France, the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technologies in Moscow, and then getting a pair of master's degrees from the University of Naples Federico II.

After all that, she became a fighter pilot in the Italian Air Force. According to ​Cristoforetti's Spacefacts profile, "in her leisure time, she enjoys mountaineering, scuba diving and caving," because why not?

Image: ESA

While being on the ISS will mean a real paucity of mountains, oceans, and caves, for first time there will at least be decent coffee.

The groan-inducingly-named "ISSpresso" machine has been a long-time in the making. Back in June 2013, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, on a long-term ISS mission, said that decent coffee was what he missed most while in space. So the coffee company Lavazza teamed up with the software company Argotech and the Italian Space Agency, apparently recognizing a branding opportunity and engineering challenge, and designed the ISSpresso.

According to Space.com, "three parameters are the same as Earth-based espresso makers: the capsule of coffee, the brewing temperature of 167 degrees Fahrenheit (75 degrees Celsius), and the water pressure." I'm not enough of a coffee snob to know if any of those things will impact the taste, but I am enough of a coffee snob to suspect that, if you're drinking coffee out of a plastic pounch in low-gravity, the brewing temperature could probably be a little off.

It's pretty much the most complicated way for Lavazza to get some attention, but its PR people missed no tricks.

The 'corner café' on the ISS will be the hub for socialising on board the Station, a sort of social network in space, a venue for getting together, chatting and relaxing: an aspect that should not be ignored in missions that keep the astronauts away from home for many months in a very challenging environment. The innovative capsule system will also be able to prepare not only a regular espresso, but also a caffè lungo or hot beverages, such as tea, infusions and broth, so that food can also be rehydrated.

I've always operated under the impression that the problem with the ISS is that it's pretty much only "a venue for getting together" and I'd want a place to be left the fuck alone. But then, that's something only an introvert would understand, as much of the internet will tell you. It's an interesting contradiction, it seems, that space travel seems about the least hospitable conditions for loners this side of a New York City HI hostel.