The Starship ISS: Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti becomes the first person to wear iconic Star Trek uniform in actual space

  • Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti wore the uniform on Friday
  • Together with Nasa astronaut Terry Virts she captured the spacecraft
  • On board it had 4,000lbs of supplies - including a coffee machine
  • It will remain at the ISS for a month before returning to Earth

By Jonathan O'Callaghan for MailOnline

Published: 06:45 EST, 20 April 2015 | Updated: 11:36 EST, 20 April 2015

An advanced spacecraft flies up to an orbiting space station, taking with it cargo and supplies for the crew on board as they continue their mission in the final frontier.

No, this isn’t a scene from Star Trek - it’s an event that took place in Earth’s orbit just the other day.

And to celebrate the arrival of the cargo-carrying Dragon spacecraft, one astronaut on the ISS donned a uniform from the popular TV show.

Scroll down for video 

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti wore the uniform on Friday (shown). Together with Nasa astronaut Terry Virts she captured the spacecraft. On board it had 4,000lbs of supplies - including a coffee machine. It will remain at the ISS for a month before returning to Earth

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti wore the uniform on Friday (shown). Together with Nasa astronaut Terry Virts she captured the spacecraft. On board it had 4,000lbs of supplies - including a coffee machine. It will remain at the ISS for a month before returning to Earth

Italian Esa astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti revealed her unique attire in a tweet.

‘”There’s coffee in that nebula”… ehm, I mean… in that #Dragon,’ she wrote.

STATS AND FACTS: THE ISS 

Construction of the ISS began on 20 November 1998.

It supports a crew of up to six, with crews split into groups of three.

The station orbits at a height of about 255 miles (410km).

It has a total mass of about 990,000 pounds (450,000kg) and has living space roughly equivalent to a five-bedroom house.

It completes an orbit of Earth every 92.91 minutes and moves at 17,100 miles (27,600km) per hour.

It has now been in space for more than 5,900 days, during which time it has completed more than 92,000 orbits of Earth, and has been continuously occupied for more than 13 years.

The ‘Dragon’ she was referring to was SpaceX’s vehicle, which launched from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday 14 April, arriving at the station on 17 April.

Here it was ‘berthed’ to the ISS - which means it was grabbed by an arm on the station, and did not dock by itself.

The capture occured while the ISS was over the Pacific Ocean, just east of Japan.

With the assistance of Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of Nasa, Cristoforetti successfully captured the spacecraft at 9.15am last Friday.

Spacecraft like Dragon are used to keep the ISS stocked with supplies, but this mission carried with it a treat for the astronauts - a coffee machine called the ISSPresso.

Italian coffee giant Lavazza joined forces with the Turin-based engineering company Argotec and the Italian Space Agency to provide a specially designed machine for use off the planet. Nasa certified its safety.

It is the first coffee machine able to work in micro gravity on the ISS, where the principles that regulate the fluid dynamics of liquids and mixtures are very different from those typical on Earth.

It uses a 'capsule system' to fill plastic pouches with espresso and other hot drinks such as tea. The machine can also be used to rehydrate food.

Italian coffee giant Lavazza joined forces with the Turin-based engineering company Argotec and the Italian Space Agency to provide a specially designed machine for use off the planet. Nasa certified its safety. Here a prototype of the coffee from the machine is shown

Italian coffee giant Lavazza joined forces with the Turin-based engineering company Argotec and the Italian Space Agency to provide a specially designed machine for use off the planet. Nasa certified its safety. Here a prototype of the coffee from the machine is shown

The outfit worn by Cristoforetti was the one that crew wore in the TV show Star Trek Voyager, shown

The outfit worn by Cristoforetti was the one that crew wore in the TV show Star Trek Voyager, shown

The Canadarm 2 reaches out to capture the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft and prepare it to be pulled into its port on the International Space Station on Friday 17 April. The Canadarm2 robotic arm maneuvered Dragon to its installation position at the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module

The Canadarm 2 reaches out to capture the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft and prepare it to be pulled into its port on the International Space Station on Friday 17 April. The Canadarm2 robotic arm maneuvered Dragon to its installation position at the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module

‘It's been just amazing,’ Cristoforetti said after snaring the Dragon over the Pacific. ‘Lots of science and even coffee's in there, so that's pretty exciting.’

Within two and half hours of its capture, the Dragon was bolted securely to the space station.

This is the California-based SpaceX company's seventh station supply run since 2012, all from Cape Canaveral. 

Aside from the coffee machine, the SpaceX Dragon supply ship had in total 4,000 pounds of food, science research and other equipment

The espresso machine is three months late because of the backlog created by last year's loss of a supply ship in a launch explosion.

Much later and the espresso machine would have missed Cristoforetti, who returns home next month.

The Dragon will remain at the orbiting lab until around 21 May, when it will be released full of experiments and discarded equipment for return to Earth. It's the only supply ship capable of bringing items back.

Among the newly arrived research are experiments for American astronaut Scott Kelly, who is just a few weeks into a one-year mission, which will be a record for Nasa.

Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko also will remain on board until March 2016.

Within 2.5 hours of its capture, the Dragon was bolted securely to the space station, shown. This is the California-based SpaceX company's seventh station supply run since 2012, all from Cape Canaveral

Within 2.5 hours of its capture, the Dragon was bolted securely to the space station, shown. This is the California-based SpaceX company's seventh station supply run since 2012, all from Cape Canaveral

The capture happened while the ISS was over the Pacific Ocean, just east of Japan, shown in this image

The capture happened while the ISS was over the Pacific Ocean, just east of Japan, shown in this image

The successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon took place on 14 April from Florida under perfect conditions, after an attempt had to be scrubbed on Monday due to lightning

The successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon took place on 14 April from Florida under perfect conditions, after an attempt had to be scrubbed on Monday due to lightning

SpaceX, meanwhile, released a video showing its first-stage booster landing on an ocean platform shortly after Tuesday's lift-off, then tipping over in flames. It was the California company's third attempt to fly a booster rocket to the platform stationed off Florida's northeastern coast.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk said the platform - dubbed 'Just Read the Instructions' - endured just minor damage.

The next attempt will be in June on the next SpaceX supply run for Nasa.

Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur who also runs the Tesla electric car maker, wants to reuse his rockets to bring down the cost of spaceflight. 

After the launch, SpaceX attempted to land part of its rocket booster on a floating platform for the third time. The landing was partially successful, with the rocket touching down on the barge - before it tipped over and exploded. The mission bodes well for the future of reusable rockets, though

After the launch, SpaceX attempted to land part of its rocket booster on a floating platform for the third time. The landing was partially successful, with the rocket touching down on the barge - before it tipped over and exploded. The mission bodes well for the future of reusable rockets, though

 

 

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