Samantha Cristoforetti's Logbook
Ten years ago today my astronaut friend Samantha Cristoforetti began her first space flight. On November 23, 2014 she was launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft for a mission to the International Space Station.
I had the privilege of helping Samantha with a public outreach project to share this adventure.
Shortly after the announcement of her mission in early July of 2013, Samantha decided on a way to tell the experience as it happened and engage the public. She wrote the Logbook, a diary to document the last 500 days of the mission training and her stay on the ISS. From July 19, 2013 to September 10, 2015 Samantha posted to Google+ more or less daily entries from the ground and in space. These long form entries in English reported on her training and life aborad the ISS and often attached some photos.
Since the beginning I provided the official Italian translation of the Logbook published on AstronautiNEWS, the news site of the space outreach organization I'm a member of.
The Italian news outlets and media that covered the mission soon began quoting or referencing my translations to inform the public of Samantha's home country. ESA later republished the translations to Avamposto42, the official website of the mission. Other space enthusiasts eventually translated the English entries into French, Spanish, German, and Russian.
Contributing to the project was an adventure for me too.
My daily routine involved waiting for Samantha to post to Google+, translating, and publishing a new entry to AstronautiNEWS as soon as possible for dissemination to the press and public. Translating rocket science terms was mostly easy, the hard part was conveying words and expressions from domains unfamiliar to me such as physical exercise and equipment.
The Logbook is a unique resource. It's the most extensive series of candid written thoughts on preparing for and carrying out a space flight, published as the events unfolded. As far as I know the L-0 entry, posted less than a day from launch, is the only written account of the thoughts and emotions of an astronaut published just hours from launch.
Google+ was shut down in 2019 but the Logbook is not lost.
Carlo Gandolfi archived the text and photos of all the original Google+ posts and published the Logbook as a free ebook. Another free ebook collects my Italian translation of the Logbook.
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