Whoa! Samantha Cristoforetti is fast becoming my favourite astronaut (not that I'd ever thought to have a favourite astronaut.) Back in April, on Dante's 750th birthday, she gave us a reading from The Paradiso from the International Space Station. Very cool, but well okay, she's Italian, she's Italy's first female astronaut, it is practically obligatory that she honours Dante, right? BUT on Monday, it being Towel Day, she read from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and ended her reading by waving a towel to "you froods on that mostly harmless planet Earth." The only thing she could have done to make me happier is if she had read from Pratchett on Lilac Day (the Glorious 25th of May of the People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road!) but I don't suppose there are lilacs in space.