Futura

Forty-two is the answer, but what is the question? Scientists from the University of Zurich wanted to probe how immune cells adapt to weightlessness so they sent an experiment to the International Space Station with ESA.

Running a microgravity laboratory that is also home to its six researcher-astronauts requires careful planning and supplies. Delivering all the food, water, fuel, experiments, samples and clothes, and departing with finished experiments or waste is done by five different types of unmanned space ferries. Three of them were berthed to the outpost during ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s Futura mission – and she was trained to handle all of them.

This article was correct at the end of the Futura mission but is no longer updated.ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti flew to the International Space Station in the three-person Soyuz spacecraft. The Station is permanently crewed by six astronauts, meaning that four Soyuz are launched every year and their astronauts spend around three months with three other crewmembers before they are replaced by a new Expedition.Samantha’s crewmates, cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and NASA astronaut Terry Virts, arrived on the Station as the second part of Expedition 42. After three months the original crewmembers of Expedition 42 left for Earth and Samantha, Terry and Anton took over the first half of Expedition 43.

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, NASA astronaut Terry Virts and Russian commander Anton Shkaplerov landed safely today in the Kazakh steppe after a three-hour ride in their Soyuz spacecraft. They left the International Space Station at 10:20 GMT at the end of their six-month stay on the research complex.

Samantha's sleeping quarters

Working with ESA’s Kubik centrifuge

Adelaide, Australia as sen from the ISS

Space Station module Unity