Building a spacesuit

ESA astronaut Tim Peake prepares his Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit ahead of a spacewalk scheduled for 15 January 2016. He will venture outside of the International Space Station together with NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra to replace a failed voltage regulator to return power to one of eight power channels. The spacewalk is expected to last 6.5 hours.

Tim posted this image on social media, commenting: "We 'built' my spacesuit today - sized to perfection and looking good! Fit check early next week."

Tim's six-month mission is named Principia, after Isaac Newton’s ground-breaking Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which describes the principal laws of motion and gravity. He is performing more than 30 scientific experiments for ESA and taking part in numerous others from ESA’s international partners.

ESA and the UK Space Agency have partnered to develop many exciting educational activities around the Principia mission, aimed at sparking the interest of young children in science and space.

Read more about the spacewalk in Tim Peake's blog: http://blogs.esa.int/tim-peake/

Connect with Tim on social media: http://timpeake.esa.int