Luca survival training

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg (left), cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (with flare) during survival training near Star City, Russia.

Survival training is an important part of all Soyuz mission training. When a Soyuz spacecraft returns to Earth there is always the possibility that it could land in water.

Luca is assigned flight engineer on a long duration mission to the International Space Station, Expedition 36/37 planned for 2013.