14 DAY TRIAL // Being an astronaut also means that you have to be prepared for anything that might happen in space and also on the ground. Six aspiring astronauts followed a nearly military training in surviving techniques, at the end of June.
In case of emergency landing on water, in the desert or close to the North Pole, astronaut candidates must be able to survive until the rescue team finds them. As they might only have basic items and the emergency pack from their Soyuz capsule, there is no wonder that the two week's trainings the candidates passed through was rather military in nature.
Future astronauts were thrown from a helicopter and left to drift at sea and also were abandoned on earth, on their own. They learned how to climb and descend high cliffs safely, cross rivers and sail in the wilderness using natural signs and the star's position. They also had to fulfill several survival missions like building a camp, making a fire, finding food and building a shelter, all under strict supervision. They were assisted by the Italian police force, the air force the coast guard local authorities and the national mountaineering rescue organization.
At the surviving training, vital to all astronauts, took part newest European recruits Samantha Cristoforetti, Alexander Gerst, Andreas Mogensen, Luca Parmitano, Timothy Peake and Thomas Pesquet. They had to learn survival in the wilderness, according to Loredana Bessone, responsible for the survival training at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne. Once these general survival skills are learned, astronauts will have to acquire vehicle and environment-specific survival skills.
The astronauts were lucky to have a good weather on their side as temperatures during the day didn't pas 30°C and at night turned around 10°C, according to Samantha Cristoforetti. Nevertheless the experience was no piece of cake, even for candidates that had been through military service.
The candidates were eulogistic towards the local instructors and the support they had given them. Next step for these aspiring astronauts is to prepare the final exam next autumn, before they can be in possession of their “space wings”.