Espresso in Space? Italian Astronauts Are Bringing a Brewer

Italy will be bringing espresso to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year, presenting astronauts and cosmonauts with a much-deserved coffee break.

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will be bringing a specially designed espresso brewer with her to the ISS in November, when she will be beginning the next of many planned long-term space missions.

Cristoferetti, who will be Italy's first woman in space, will also be the first to drink authentic Italian espresso in orbit - making her the envy of her colleagues, who have been complaining about how much they miss their country's famous beverage for the last 13 years.

David Avino, the managing director of tech company Argotec, said in a press video that he first heard this complaint early last year when Italian astronauts stationed on the ISS jokingly remarked that after a mere week on the station, the thing they missed most was real coffee. The line has supposedly been a running joke among the European Space Agency (ESA) team.

Surprisingly, "Argotec had already been working for a year on the concept of an espresso coffee to take 400 kilometers above our heads," Avino said.

The brewer, cleverly named the ISSpresso machine, can overcome the problems that would be experienced if astronauts tried to bring a traditional brewing machine into microgravity. It is outfitted with steel tubing, a pressurized boiling system, and a way for thirsty astronauts to fill their "mugs" without the risk of espresso floating away. It can also reportedly be used to produce tea, infusions, caffe lungos and broths, according to a release from Lavazza, the Italian espresso company who worked with Argotec to see this unusual dream become a reality.

According to Giuseppe Lavanza, the vice president of the century-old coffee company, it is his hope that the coffee machine will give ISS teams an excuse to mingle and bond over a fresh brew.

"Italian coffee is a beverage without borders," he explained. "Today we are in a position to overcome the limits of weightlessness and enjoy a good espresso."

This isn't the first privately funded publicity stunt to bring a beverage to space. Japanese company Otsuka Pharmaceuticals previously announced that the Lunar Dream Capsule Project will be transporting a can of their sports drink, Pocari Sweat, to the Moon sometime next year.