Alexander Gerst
Sign in to saveGerman ESA astronaut and geophysicist
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1976-05-03 ) 3 May 1976 (age 50) , Künzelsau , Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
- Occupation
- Geophysicist
- Awards
- Bernd Rendel Prize
- Status
- Active
- Time in space
- 362 days, 1 hour, 50 minutes
- Selection
- 2009 ESA Group
- Total eva time
- 6 hours, 13 minutes
- Missions
- Soyuz TMA-13M ( Expedition 40 / 41 ) Soyuz MS-09 ( Expedition 56 / 57 )
- Website
- alexandergerst .esa .int
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Alexander
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Germany
- Place of birth
- Künzelsau
- Occupation
- volcanologist
- Employer
- European Space Agency
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- German
- Academic degree
- Master of Science
- Field of work
- astronautics
- Official website
- alexandergerst.esa.int
- Image
- Alexander Gerst - Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory 1.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Alexander Gerst
- date of birth
- 1976-00-00
- P450
- Expedition 57
- name in native language
- Alexander Gerst
- time in space
- 521390
- Commons Creator page
- Alexander Gerst
- social media followers
- 1197290
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Alexander Gerst (born 3 May 1976 in Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg) is a German European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and geophysicist, who was selected in 2009 to take part in space training. He was part of the International Space Station Expedition 40 and 41 from May to November 2014. Gerst returned to space on 6 June 2018, as part of Expedition 56/57. He was the commander of the International Space Station. He returned to Earth on 20 December 2018. After the end of his second mission and before being surpassed by Luca Parmitano in 2020, he held the record for most time in space of any active ESA astronaut (362 days), succeeding Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, and German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, who formally held the record for the longest time in space for any active or retired ESA astronaut.
Education and research
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Alexander Gerst” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.