In cooperation with the World Space Week Association and Swarovski, the Austrian Space Forum initiated the Tiuterra project: Rock samples from all over the world were colected including specimen from Antarctica and the bottom of the sea floor during a diving expedition, on the occasion of the 2013 World Space Week. These were than analysed and -combined with a tiny part of a Mars meteorite than mixed into a master sample. Swarovski took on the challange of creating a piece of beauty out of those, the “Tiuterra Crystal”. Three of them are scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in November for the Expedition 42/43 of Samantha Cristoforetti. This arks the first time, OeWF hardware is flying to the station.

At the European Astronaut Center these three crystals were handed over to Samantha Cristoforetti during a media event. – Take a look at the visit of the OeWF delegation to Cologne, Germany, the heart of Europe’s astronauts!

1 Just before the press arrives, Monika Fischer, Samantha Cristoforetti, Jules Grandsire and Gernot Groemer discuss the last details of the event.

2 Great moment: OeWF president Gernot Groemer and Christian Nagele, Vice President of Product Development of Swarovski hand over the Tiuterras as well as a personalized version of the Crystal to Samantha Cristoforetti in front of the training -version of the Columbus Module of the Space Station.

3 After the hand-over, Jules Grandsire (EAC) invited the media and the OeWF delegation for VIP tour of the EAC, including a look ino the Automated Transfer Vehicle – the fifth and last ATV happens to be in-orbit right now!

4 Inside the ATV is seems to be pretty crowded – now wonder, as it is designed to be the “space truck” for the ISS.

5 The OeWF delegation with Samantha Cristoforetti inside the Columbus module.

6 Christian Nagele and Gernot Groemer at the helm of the Sojuz spacecraft simulator. Well, with flight suits instead instead of business suits they might have almost passed as astronaut trainees.

7 The simulation supervisor console for the Sojuz training mock-up. Here, all the nasty problems are injected

8 Veronika Haberle and Julia Neuner in front of the ATV mock-up. Two happy FemTech-students on a mission.

9 What a nice suprise: Andrea Boyd, who works at the the EUROCOM console (EAC’s control room for the european involvement of the ISS) and is a OeWF Mission Support Center veteran happened to be on console duty during the Tiuterra Hand-over ceremony. With great enthusiasm Andrea described her work at the this extraordinary workplace.[/caption]

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