Spacewalk training at NASA's NBL

Members of ESA’s astronaut class of 2022 embarked on their first overseas field trip. They visited NASA’s facilities at the Johnson Space Centre (JSC) in Houston, Texas, USA, to get familiar with the environment where they will spend a significant part of their training once assigned to a mission.

During their time at NASA’s JSC, the astronaut candidates had the opportunity to explore the 12-meter-deep Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL). This facility hosts a replica of the entire Space Station, where astronauts can perform underwater simulations of spacewalks using the US spacesuit, known as the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU).  

As part of their visit, while scuba diving themselves, the group observed a full space suit dive, providing them with a more comprehensive understanding of the process and first-hand experience in the simulation. 

From left to right: ESA astronaut and lead of astronaut operations at the European Astronaut Centre Alexander Gerst, ESA astronaut candidates Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Sophie Adenot, Raphaël Liégeois, Rosemary Coogan, and Marco Sieber. In the middle is NASA astronaut candidate Jack Hathaway in the EMU.