ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst taken by his crewmate NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman as they train for their six-month mission to the International Space Station starting in May.
Reid Tweeted this message with the image: “Lucky photo! Helps when your subject is photogenic and his country’s flag is behind him.”
Alexander and Reid spend many hours training with spacesuits in swimming pools to recreate the feeling of weightlessness in orbit. The Space Station offers two types of spacesuits for working outside of the space laboratory – the Russian Orlan and the American spacesuit that Alex is wearing here.
Called the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or EMU, the NASA spacesuit is nothing less than a miniature spacecraft that supplies oxygen and keeps astronauts at the right temperature. The suit provides protection against the vacuum of space and temperature differences of over 200°C as the Space Station passes from sunlight into the shadow of Earth 16 times each day.
Alexander is flight engineer for Expedition 40/41, which will be launched to the Station in May 2014 on a long-duration mission to run science experiments and maintain humankind’s space base.