How do you prepare for one of the most demanding and risky tasks for an astronaut? A spacewalk, or Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), requires working outside a spacecraft in a world where nothing is like on Earth. Preparing astronauts for these complex sorties requires simulating the weightless world of space, but there is only so much you can do while gravity still has its hold.

ESA astronauts Tim Peake, Luca Parmitano, Samantha Cristoforetti and Matthias Maurer explain how they train for spacewalks with footage from the European Astronaut Centre and NASA’s Johnson Space Center on the techniques of simulating work in microgravity using the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), Partial Gravity Simulator (POGO) Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) as well as checking the spacewalk gloves fit in vacuum.