Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut: A Memoir

A memoir of an aspiring female astronaut’s long journey to the International Space Station: spanning from a young adulthood centered on qualifying to reach the stars—to five years of training across Earth for the intensities of space—to two hundred days onboard the ISS, chronicling the everyday and extraordinary moments of life in orbit

Follow a female astronaut through every moment of her ascent as she trains for a mission to the International Space Station and discovers the wonders of life 250 miles above Earth

The countdown is over. Today, I woke up on Earth and I’ll fall asleep in space.

Two hundred days orbiting Earth on the International Space Station. Five years working and training with the aerospace community across the world. A lifetime of choices leading to the stars. These are the components of Samantha Cristoforetti’s dream, a dream she invites us to share in this intimate account of an astronaut’s journey to space. She views the triumphs and disappointments of that journey with a poet’s eye and a philosopher’s mind—and an engineer’s gift for detail that brings each experience into sharp focus. With Cristoforetti as our guide, we’re called to become “apprentice astronauts” and experience the world anew through the visor of a space suit’s helmet. Bonding with crew members to tackle challenges as a team, lifting off from the launchpad in a roar of engines, discovering the strange wonders of weightlessness, seeing Earth with a fresh perspective after a bittersweet return to solid ground . . . all these moments and more reveal what it really takes to escape our planet’s gravity in pursuit of a goal.

About the Author

Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, engineer, and former Italian Air Force pilot. She spent 200 days on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Expedition 42/43. In March 2021, ESA announced that Cristoforetti will com- mand ISS Expedition 68a when she returns in spring 2022. She was also the commander of NASA's NEEMO 23 underwater research and exploration mission in 2019.