ESA's Human Space Flight programme is gaining more and more experience with several long duration missions aboard the International Space Station.
In 2013 and 2014 the recently recruited new generation of European astronauts will enjoy the experience of orbiting the Earth.
Luca Parmitano will fly from Baikonur next May for six months, followed in 2014 by Alexander Gerst and then Samantha Cristoforetti.

This videos shows ESA astronauts training at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston and Star City in Moscow.

More background information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/esaHS/index.html

It includes interviews with Luca Parmitano in English, Italian and French and Alexander Gerst in English and German.

The MPEG-2 files are on the ESA ftp server in the folder entitled: ftp://esa.contentcoders.com/mpeg2/mpeg2/New-Astronauts-Training-06112012/