Italian astronaut brews, sips first fresh espresso in space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The International Space Station is finally serving up fresh Italian espresso.

Over the weekend, astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy fired up the world’s first espresso machine in space. She posted a photo of herself on Twitter on Sunday, sipping from a cup designed for use in zero-gravity. For the special occasion, she put on her “Star Trek” uniform top. She couldn’t resist tweeting the phrase, “to boldly brew.”

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.

MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer