Spacewalking is the highlight of an astronaut's career, and one of the hardest physical challenges they will ever face. So training at this facility in Germany is key.
Spacewalking is the highlight of an astronaut's career, and one of the hardest physical challenges they will ever face. Outside the International Space Station you're working against the clock in the deathly void of space while your mind is blown away by the incredible universe, your head spinning with vertigo as you look down to the blue planet below.
Hervé Stevenin is Europe's spacewalk teacher, the man who trains all the European astronauts and turns them into some of the most valuable personnel the ISS ever hosts, and he does so from a unique swimming pool-like facility in Cologne, Germany.
The Frenchman introduces us to the Neutral Buoyancy Facility at the European Astronaut Centre, and explains to Euronews Space correspondent Jeremy Wilks why this type of training ground is the best way to teach budding astronauts the basics of spacewalking.