Luca Parmitano pointing to his spacesuit at the European Astronaut Centre. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0

Luca Parmitano pointing to his spacesuit at the European Astronaut Centre. Credits: ESA–J. Harrod CC BY SA IGO 3.0

Tim Peake’s colleague ESA astronaut, Luca Parmitano, is at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, to follow Tim’s spacewalk today. Luca has done two spacewalks of his own, the second famously ending quicker than expected due to a water leak in his spacesuit. In the picture to the right Luca is pointing at the spacesuit Tim Kopra is wearing — the exact same Luca wore on his spacewalks. The problem with the water pump has been fixed of course.

Tim Peake will be wearing a brand-new spacesuit that has never been used before. It arrived at the International Space Station on Cygnus spacecraft CRS OA-4 in December.

Luca will be answering questions on Twitter with #askLuca, or right here in the blog comments.

Watch Luca explain how spacesuits work while was on the International Space Station in this video below: