Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut

An incredible odyssey * The Financial Times *From the mundane to the sublime in a second… full of illuminating observations from what Cristoforetti calls the ‘cosmic perspective ’ * Guardian *Samantha Cristoforetti is remarkable… a brilliant book – Jeremy Vine * BBC Radio 2 *Cristoforetti rocks… being awesome is part of the job… She belongs to a new category of astronauts who are just as adept at posting a witty Facebook post as they are at performing a science experiment in minimal gravity * Wired *An enthralling book… Many of us are dreaming of an escape from Earth at present - and Samantha Cristoforetti’s absorbing tale of becoming an astronaut and venturing into space offers just that… She’s a gifted writer – Gwendolyn Smith * Mail on Sunday *Incredible detail and great writing. I do take exception with the title because when I arrived on ISS, Samantha was far from an apprentice astronaut – Scott Kelly, author of EnduranceLately, I have become as fascinated by the way that humans relate to science and the natural world, as I am to the scientific breakthroughs themselves… So, this diary of what it is like to do through astronaut training for a 200-day mission to the International Space Station crossed my desk at exactly the right time. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti writes with honesty. Her prose is simple and down to Earth, which increased my empathy for her story – Stuart Clark * BBC Science Focus Books of the Year *

Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, engineer and former Air Force pilot. She spent 200 days on the International Space Station as part of Expedition 42⁄43, mission Futura, in 2014-2015. Cristoforetti is currently on her second mission to the International Space Station, #MissionMinerva.