There’s something surreal about talking to someone who’s been to space. Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti might be at home in Cologne while I’m Zooming her from London – but there’s still an awareness: those eyes have seen what only a handful of people will ever see. Those hands have been without gravity travelling at 28,000 kilometres an hour.

Loved ones gave Cristoforetti trinkets to take to the space station, where she spent 200 days between November 2014 and June 2015. The way she sees it, the rationale is that not many things have ever been to space and “you’re going to see a picture of it floating in front of Earth – it’s a symbolic meaning, added value”.