Vacuum test

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet travelled the world to prepare for his six-month adventure on the International Space Station. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston, USA, Thomas put his spacesuit to the ultimate test on Earth: all the air was pumped out from the Space Station Airlock Test Article to create a vacuum like he would encounter in outer space.

All astronauts who live on the International Space Station are trained for spacewalks in case they need to head outside.

Thomas was launched into space together with NASA’s Peggy Whitson and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy 16 November 2016.

See more photos on Thomas’ Flickr page and follow his training and spaceflight first-hand on social media: thomaspesquet.esa.int