It’s a very busy year for ESA astronauts. Following Samantha Cristoforetti’s return to Earth on June 11th, two more members of ESA’s astronaut corps are scheduled to fly to the ISS later this year. Andreas Mogensen from Denmark will be launched in September, while Tim Peake from the UK is set to fly in December. Both astronauts have recently been at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, as part of the intensive pre-flight training programme.