European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti contains multitudes. The current International Space Station resident has been a Star Trek captain, a hotshot pilot from Battlestar Galactica and the star of the movie Gravity. Now, in what may be Cristoforetti's wildest cosplay yet, she's a flight attendant who's walking up walls.
On Friday, Cristoforetti tweeted a photo of herself floating in microgravity on the ISS while dressed as a Pan Am flight attendant from Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the movie, the flight attendant wears a white uniform with special Velcro "grip shoes" made to stick to the floor of the space plane.
Cristoforetti's photo shows a scene from the movie projected across her torso. "I had to know… can you really walk in space with Velcro shoes?" the astronaut tweeted.
I had to know… can you really walk in space with Velcro shoes? Coming soon 😉 #MissionMinerva pic.twitter.com/XIfievrEgJ
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) October 7, 2022
The astronaut followed her initial photo with a video on Saturday set to the epic theme music from 2001. The theatrical short shows a spacecraft docking to the ISS, then cuts to Cristoforetti walking around in a circle up a wall in the same manner as one of the flight attendant's scenes from the film.
2022 A Space Odyssey. Turns out, yes, you can walk with Velcro shoes. Slowly, very very slowly 😉#ASpaceOdyssey #MissionMinerva @esa @esaspaceflight @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/WI69RXmObE
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) October 8, 2022
Cristoforetti tweeted, "2022 A Space Odyssey. Turns out, yes, you can walk with Velcro shoes. Slowly, very very slowly."
Cristoforetti's latest sci-fi tribute is a testament to her ability to engage the public in space exploration. It's also a reminder of just how impressive Kubrick's visual effects were for 2001, a movie that debuted in 1968.
Cristoforetti had the advantage of filming in real microgravity. Kubrick achieved the original walking-up-a-wall effect by using a rotating set. The result is still stunning, even in this age of high-tech computer graphics.
The astronaut arrived for her latest ISS stay in April as part of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission. She's due back on Earth later this month, but she'll return as a space cosplay champion.