Alexander Gerst, German ESA astronaut, will fly to the International Space Station in 2014 for a six-month mission as a flight engineer of Expeditions 40 and 41.
He was born in Künzelsau, Germany, in 1976. Alexander studied at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, where he received a diploma in geophysics. He also studied Earth Science at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, where he was awarded a Master of Science. He has been working as a researcher since 2001. In his spare time he enjoys mountaineering, diving, climbing and skydiving.
In these photos Alexander is photographed at the European Astronaut Centre, during parabolic flights and in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at NASA's Sonny Carter Training Facility near Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
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