Astronauts living in the International Space Station have shot some amazing underwater footage – 263 miles away from the closest body of water in the galaxy.

The crew pushed a sealed GoPro camera into a floating ball of water, about the size of a grapefruit, and filmed the results from both the GoPro and other cameras.

With its typical flair for efficient language, Nasa described the process as an ‘experiment’, explaining: ‘During Expedition 40 in the summer of 2014, Nasa astronauts Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman, along with European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, explored the phenomenon of water surface tension in microgravity on the International Space Station.’

In layman’s terms, three guys screwed around with a GoPro.

The footage shows Wiseman and Swanson making the ball by releasing water into the weightlessness of the space station. Wiseman then simply pushes the GoPro into the mass of water.
It almost shoots out the other side but finally comes to rest inside the ball. Gerst can be seen for the first time waving at the camera in the ‘underwater’ shot, while the other two talk about how ‘wild’ and ‘absolutely fascinating’ the whole thing is.

Russian flight engineer Oleg Artemyev, wearing a striped shirt and armed with a towel to eventually deal with the water, also features in the underwater shot

Getting the camera into the bubble proved easier than getting it out. The water, without gravity to pin it to one particular place, covers everything it touches – the camera, the astronauts’ hands, the other cameras they’re using, everything.

Hopefully, they’ve mopped it all up by now.