Anyone who has seriously attempted cosplay before knows that it’s a serious labor of love. While there’s nothing wrong with donning a casual costume in a nod to your favorite characters, there is a huge community of artists out there that take it to a whole other level. In particular, one astronaut significantly upped the cosplay ante by Trekking in space.
So, what’s the scoop?
Following a successful blast-off on April 14 for the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster and Dragon cargo ship, the resupply vessel arrived at the International Space Station on April 17 and was snared by Expedition 43 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, who donned her Star Trek uniform for the task!
And may we add, she looks pretty choice for a Red Shirt.
Details please!
Cristoforetti successfully wrestled in the SpaceX Dragon freighter at about 6:55 a.m. EDT with assistance from a crewmate.
Dragon is carrying crucial supplies to the six astronauts and cosmonauts on board the Space Station, including the first ever One-Year Mission crew of NASA’s Scott Kelly and Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko.
Specifically, Dragon is carrying over 4300 pounds of supplies, science experiments and tech demonstrations, which will help support roughly 40 of the more than 250 science and research investigations between Expeditions 43 and 44.
How long did the process take?
The entire grappling process was a multi-hour endeavor and was carried out live on NASA TV for much of the morning and went very smoothly.
What kinds of things were sent for the research investigations?
Among other things, a fresh batch of 20 rodents for the Rodent Research Habitat and experiments on osteoporosis to counter-act the deterioration of bones in micro-gravity, the growth of protein crystals, vision loss in astronauts and synthetic muscle for robots and prosthetics.
Oh, and a choice Espresso machine!
