Samantha Cristoforetti, the first European woman commander of the International Space Station, is to leave the ISS in around 20 hours, Crew 4 chief Kjell Lindgren told a NASA press conference on Tuesday.
AstroSam will leave the station with her crew of 4 colleagues: Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, at around 14:00 Wednesday, he said.
It will take 17 hours to land in the sea after the Crew Dragon Freedom shuttle detaches from the ISS, he said.
AstroSam was sporting a small plaster on her forehead, the result of bumping her head.
This past Friday, Cristoforetti had delighted fans by tweeting photo of herself mid microgravity float on the ISS, cosplaying as a Pan Am flight attendant from Stanley Kubrick's beloved film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In the original movie, the flight attendant wears an all white uniform with futuristic velcro "grip shoes", which allow her to stick to the surfaces of the space plane.
Cristoforetti's tweet shows a scene from the film projected over her face and torso.
"I had to know… can you really walk in space with Velcro shoes?" the astronaut tweeted.
It is precisely this playful spirit that has won AstroSam legions of devoted fans worldwide, many of whom undoubtedly await her safe arrival home with bated breath.
