Around 10 days before the beginning of training you receive your training documents. Please go through them as meticulously as possible - after all, ESA's astronaut trainers await you at the European Astronaut Centre, the home base of the European team of astronauts.
After the startup briefing you get your individual training clothes, the ESA flightsuit with name badge and mission patch. The first lesson explains the physical and mental demands made on astronauts. You will be amazed: it is not muscle-bound super athletes who are needed for space assignments, but people with very normal physical features and above all a balanced state of mind.
During the medical examination you test your aptitude for spaceflight and diving training in a number of space-related medical checks in the ECG ergometer, in the pressure chamber and in the famous rotating chair. A member of the ESA staff then familiarizes you with the structure and functions of the European Space Agency and explains the current programmes in manned and unmanned spaceflight. During a brief tour you get a general idea of the training facilities of the European Astronaut Centre.
Overview of ISS: your guide and instructor in this training unit is a member of the ESA astronaut corps and who else could better provide information on the International Space Station, this outpost of humankind about 400 kilometres away. You learn all key facts about the goals and prospects of this unparalleled project and about the everyday living conditions of the crews: working, eating, showering and sleeping in the weightlessness of outer space.
Prior to the first diving exercises in the big diving pool it is time for theory. On the basis of a training video for EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activities), the instructor explains to you how work is performed in the weightlessness of space and how this environment is simulated in a pool. In the next step you learn the most important diving rules and thoroughly familiarize yourself with the scuba equipment.
In a presentation in the EAC's multimedia room you are given an overview of the training units that European astronauts have to complete before they obtain clearance for a mission to the International Space Station. The Columbus European space laboratory is one of Europe's main contributions to the International Space Station and will open up a wide variety of research opportunities in zero gravity.
After getting a general idea of how this complex system functions, you will become familiar with its scientific payloads and conduct a series of exercises and tests in which you ensure and check the operativeness of the laboratory, for example, or supply the Biolab with new specimens.
The ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) is Europe's first autonomous space vehicle project: an unmanned one-way transporter that will supply the ISS beginning in 2005. After a short project briefing you immediately start the practical exercises. In a true-to-the-original ATV simulator you train handling of the ATV transport containers and learn now to transfer the cargo of the ATV to the ISS in space.
After thorough theoretical instruction it's finally time to go to the Hydrolab. The original training devices of the astronauts are anchored in the pool. Here you dive to a depth of around six metres and inspect the training modules. In floating exercises you become familiar with the methods of microgravity simulation with which the astronauts prepare for the EVAs and finally you unpack and unfold a large solar sail on the ISS structure. This lesson is concluded with the presentation of your PADI diving certificate: your introduction to the generally valid diving training certificates. Over a farewell drink at the EAC cafeteria your trainer presents you with the official ESA document that certifies successful completion of your space training.
Between the lessons there is ample time for small breaks in the cafeteria, in the power training gym of the astronauts or in the Aerotrim. And in the evening of the first training day a very special dinner awaits you. You spend a stimulating evening with the spaceflight professionals from all regions of Europe - an informative and exciting exchange of ideas with delicious food and beverages.