Italian Astronaut Brews, Sips First Fresh Espresso In Space

CAPE CANAVERAL (CBSMiami/AP) – In a cup designed for use in zero-gravity, an Italian astronaut sipped coffee from the world's first espresso machine in space.

Over the weekend, Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy posted a photo of herself on Twitter after she used the machine at International Space Station. For the special occasion, she put on her "Star Trek" uniform top. She couldn't resist tweeting the phrase, "to boldly brew."

"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised." Fresh espresso in the new Zero-G cup! To boldly brew... pic.twitter.com/Zw2CllJgzF

— Sam Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) May 3, 2015

Cristoforetti, who returns to Earth next week, almost didn't get any espresso. The experimental espresso maker, straight from Italy, was supposed to arrive in January, but didn't get to orbit until April because of a shipment backlog.

There's no word yet on how Cristoforetti liked the space brew. But it had to beat NASA's instant coffee, drunk by straw from a pouch.

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