Astronaut basic training: sea survival

During astronaut basic training, candidates undergo water and winter survival training to prepare for any eventuality, including the possibility of a spacecraft landing in remote or unexpected locations, such as the sea.

The group included ESA astronaut candidates Sophie Adenot, Rosemary Coogan, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Raphaël Liégeois, and Marco Sieber, ESA member of the reserve John McFall, alongside Katherine Bennell-Pegg from the Australian Space Agency. The candidates are currently undergoing basic astronaut training and familiarisation primarily conducted at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany.  

The one-year training provides an overall familiarisation and training in various areas, such as spacecraft systems, spacewalking, flight engineering, robotics and life support systems. They go through survival and medical training before receiving ESA astronaut certification in the spring of this year.  

After certification, they will move on to the next phases of pre-assignment and mission-specific training, paving the way for future missions to the International Space Station and beyond.