BRENT: Samantha Cristoforetti had an espresso on Sunday that was out of this world, and she did it in the name of science.
Ms. Cristoforetti is an astronaut, the seventh Italian and the first Italian woman to venture into orbit. She has been at the International Space Station since November, and over the weekend she got to do something quintessentially Italian: She became the first person to drink an authentic serving of what she called “the finest organic suspension ever devised” in space.
“Fresh espresso in the new Zero-G cup! To boldly brew … ” she posted on social media, where she has been chronicling her stay on the station with photos and explanatory videos.
However much she may have enjoyed her first espresso in more than five months, making the drink in orbit was no lark, but “a very serious study in fluid physics,” Roberto Battiston, president of ASI, the Italian space agency, wrote in an emailed statement. “Until Sunday, we didn’t know exactly how hot fluids under high pressure reacted” in the near-weightless environment of the space station, he said. “Now we do.”
A special espresso maker, named ISSpresso, was designed for the task by Argotec, an engineering and software firm based in Turin, and the Italian coffee producer Lavazza, with help from the space agency. It was included among the experiments and technical demonstrations that Ms. Cristoforetti, a captain in the Italian Air Force, was scheduled to carry out on her mission to the station, which ends in mid-May.
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