Samantha Cristoforetti and her NASA colleagues Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines and Jessica Watkins, arrived on the International Space Station. NASA and ESA confirmed with Space X that the Crew Dragon Freedom made a perfect docking on the International Space Station tonight, Thursday, April 28, at 1:37 am Cest. “It is a great pleasure for me to see not only the successful launch and docking of Crew-4 with Samantha Cristoforetti, but also the meeting in orbit of two extremely competent European astronauts”. This is one of the first comments of Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, who considers it a very special event to see two European astronauts together in space. In fact, the German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer also welcomed Samantha on the ISS, who began his six-month long mission on the ISS last November 11, 2021 as a member of Crew-3 and whose return to Earth is scheduled for brief. “As an expert astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti will continue to represent Europe and conduct European experiments aboard the Space Station for the duration of the Minerva mission” and “these experiments will make a fundamental contribution to European innovation on Earth, from the development of our industry, to protect the environment, to explore even deeper space “, Aschbacher emphasizes. Aschbacher’s opinion shared by ESA director of Human and Robotics Exploration David Parker. “Samantha Cristoforetti has been an excellent role model for those currently participating in the selection process to become ESA astronauts and astronauts by providing advice, information and inspiration throughout the journey,” he recalls.