Climbing for space explorers

AXA astronaut Ayu Yoneda and NASA astronaut candidate Ben Bailey, dressed in green T-shirts, practise single-rope ascent and descent techniques on a natural rock face during the ESA CAVES 2026 course.

Five explorers from three space agencies have successfully completed ESA’s CAVES training course in Italy in June 2026.

For two intense weeks, deep below the Apennine Mountains, caves became their training laboratory. Trainees had to adapt to an alien underworld that shares many analogies with a space mission: isolation, confinement and limited supplies.

Participants in the eighth edition were ESA astronaut Rosemary Coogan, John McFall, member of ESA’s astronaut reserve and the Fly! project, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, NASA astronaut candidate Ben Bailey and JAXA astronaut Ayu Yoneda.

CAVES offers a unique opportunity for spacefarers to become proficient explorers by experiencing the physical and psychological extremes of an unknown environment.