Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti shares Happy Independence Day wish for India from International Space Station

As India is about to mark its 75th year of Independence in a couple of days, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has sent a video message from space wishing the country on this special occasion.

The message from Cristoforetti, who is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and onboard the International Space Station (ISS), also wished success to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the ‘Gaganyaan’ programme.

The video was shared by ISRO’s official Twitter handle. “Thank you @NASA, @esa, and all the partners of the International Space Station @Space_Station for the wishes on #AzadiKaAmritMahotsav,” it said along with Cristoforetti’s video message.

The 1-minute 13 seconds long video shows her wearing a red T-shirt as she extends best wishes to the agency.

In it, Cristoforetti said, “On the behalf of ESA, NASA, and all international partners, I would like to wish the best of luck to ISRO as it works on the Gaganyaan programme and gets ready to send humans into space. Expanding our partnership with ISRO and exploring the universe together is a goal for all of us for future space explorations.”

She also spoke about NASA and the ISRO’s joint Earth-observing mission and added that the International Space Agency is expanding its partnership with ISRO for future space explorations.

The ‘Gaganyaan’ programme is India’s maiden human space mission which is scheduled to take place in 2023.