Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Alexei Zubritsky, as well as NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, were seen taking part in water survival training in Noginsk near Moscow on Thursday.

The drill itself focused on dealing with a leaking reentry module following a 'splashdown' on Earth, and footage shows them getting into the module, before jumping into the water and lighting flares.

"The main thing is to stay together, not let the waves scatter us. For this purpose there is a wearable emergency kit with straps that we attach to our spacesuits. One strap is attached to myself, the other strap to my partner, and thus we stay close together, wait for the search and rescue team and make signals when necessary," said Kud-Sverchkov.

"Chris is a real professional," he added. "I am very glad that he is in our crew, he understands Russian well, and he knows the action sequence well."

Anatoli Zabruskov, deputy head of Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training centre, explained that the crew had a very short amount of time to get it right.

"There is a certain requirement, that is, they have to prepare spacesuits, put on flotation gear, attach survival kit… This whole thing takes up to eight minutes. If it takes them eight minutes then they meet the requirement with an excellent mark," he said.

The crew are scheduled to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in late 2025.