Real coffee hits space as Italian astronaut brews 'first espresso' on ISS

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has become the world's first orbiting barista after firing up experimental ISSpresso coffee machine 250 miles above Earth.

The first Italian woman in space took it to her Twitter page to post a selfie of her sipping from a cup designed for use in zero-gravity from the International Space Station, the Guardian reported.

For the occasion, she put on her Star Trek uniform top and tweeted: "Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. Fresh espresso in the new zero-G cup! To boldly brew ..."

The Italian coffee manufacturer Lavazza, which teamed up with the engineering firm Argotec on the space espresso project with the Italian Space Agency, tweeted "Today the International Space Station feels a little more like home."

The espresso maker uses capsules of espresso coffee. Fifteen were flown up with the machine in a SpaceX cargo carrier, as well as five capsules for flushing out the system. More coffee capsules are available for launch if requested by the six-person crew.