Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian female astronaut and the 59th ever, made history on Sunday by beating the record of women's permance in outer space. "AstroSamantha", as she is called, is a 38-year-old Captain of the Italian Air Force. On June 11, she will conclude the mission after spending 199 days in outer space, topping the 195-day record set in 2007 by Ohio-born Sunita Williams, 49.

Williams, who followed part of Cristoforetti's training in the United States, still holds the record for total spacewalk time, with 50 hours and 40 minutes in 7 spacewalks. The Milanese astronaut, who was born and brought up in Male' in Val di Sole, near Trento, in northern Italy, set the record also thanks to the delay in the spacecraft's re-entry to Earth, which was scheduled for May 14, due to the failed launching and subsequent docking at the International Space Station (ISS) of the Progress M-27M cargo, which disintegrated in the atmosphere and fell in the waters of the Pacific at the beginning of May.

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Source: http://www.agi.it/