Italy's first female astronaut delivers espresso to ISS

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Three new crew members have arrived at the International Space Station. The research laboratory has been short-staffed for the last two weeks since three astronauts returned home.

The crew’s arrival also heralds massive food upgrades for everyone on aboard with several boxes of caviar, apples, oranges delivered and an Italian espresso machine is making its debut in space.

The trio, which includes Italy’s first female astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti along with a Russian cosmonaut and an American astronaut, will spend six months in orbit.

The 37-year-old Italian Air Force pilot is expected to perform a spacewalk to prepare for a new fleet of US commercial space taxis due to begin flying astronauts to the station in late 2017.