ESA astronaut makes history with 1st TikTok from space station

Washington, May 10:  The European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has become the first-ever TikToker to post a video from the International Space Station.

Cristoforetti is part of SpaceX's Crew-4 mission, which arrived at the orbiting lab on April 27 for a six-month stay.

"Follow me to boldly go where no TikToker has gone before," the astronaut said in the 88-second TikTok video posted on May 5.

In the video Cristoforetti took her viewers through Crew-4's launch as well as introduced them to the mission's two zero-g indicators, a plush turtle named Zippy and a stuffed monkey called Etta, Space.com reported.

"Etta is short for 'scimmietta', which is Italian for 'little monkey,' of course," Cristoforetti says in the video.

(Etta was the first plush toy that Cristoforetti bought for her daughter, Kelsey.)

"What questions do you have about life on the space station?" she asked her audience toward the end of the video, even as she floated in front of one of the orbiting lab's windows.

"Tell me in the comments. And remember: Follow me to boldly go where no TikToker has gone before."

Before Crew-4's launch, ESA officials noted that Cristoforetti is the first professional astronaut ever on the platform, "bringing space content and European research to a wider audience."

Cristoforetti had already posted a number of space-explainer videos on TikTok, but Thursday's was the first one she actually filmed in the final frontier, the report said.

Crew-4 is Cristoforetti's second spaceflight. She previously lived aboard the space station from November 2014 to June 2015.