ESA astronaut shares heartfelt message after historic spacewalk with Russian cosmonaut

Astronaut Samantha Christoforetti etched history on July 22 when she became the first European woman to venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) for a spacewalk. Representing the European Space Agency (ESA), she was accompanied by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev in her debut spacewalk that lasted seven hours. 

Expressing her feelings after the historic event, Christoforetti, on July 28, shared a video of her working outside the space station along with a heartfelt message. 

“Just two words: THANK YOU! Thank you all in Europe, Moscow, Houston and on the space station (sic)”, she wrote in her tweet. “Thanks for working to make this possible, thanks for the training, the planning, the real-time support, the videos and pictures, the trust and the encouragement. It was a dream come true”, she added. 

European astronaut scripts history

The spacewalk began at 7:30 pm wherein the duo completed several tasks for seven continuous hours. During the spacewalk, the two ISS residents deployed ten nanosatellites and completed tasks around the European Robotic Arm (ERA) for its first operation on the station’s Nauka module. Notably, they also created a record for installing the most number of satellites during a single spacewalk. 

The two were dressed in the Russian Orlan-ISS spacesuit which is designed to fit any body type. Christoforetti shared her experience of working in the Olan suit with Artemyev, who is also the special correspondent of the TASS news agency. "It was comfortable to work (in Olan). I trained in both American and Russian spacesuits back on Earth", she told Artemyev. 

While Europe-backed Ukraine and Russia are at war on Earth, the recent spacewalk marked the only instance of cooperation between the two states. However, the Russia-Ukraine crisis did have an impact on the status of the ISS which was demonstrated in a couple of pictures shared by Roscosmos.

The Russian space agency shared the pictures of three Russian cosmonauts, including Artemeyev, posing with the flags of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Roscosmos is working on its exit from the space station starting in 2024 and will develop its own Russian Orbital Space Service (ROSS).