Blue dot

Latest news

Explore

ARCHIVE CONTENT: 18 MAY. 2016

Alexander Gerst to be Space Station commander

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has been assigned a new mission to the International Space Station, where he will fulfil the role of commander during the second part of his six-month mission in 2018.

Read article

[ Blue dot ]

ARCHIVE CONTENT: 26 NOV. 2015

German Chancellor Merkel welcomes ESA astronaut to her home region

German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and ESA Director Thomas Reiter joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently in her home region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in the very northeast of Germany.

Read article

[ Blue dot ]

ARCHIVE CONTENT: 08 MAY. 2014

The voyage home

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, Russian commander Maxim Suraev and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman returned to their Soyuz TMA-013M spacecraft and lifeboat at the end of their 166-day mission on the International Space Station. The ride home is even shorter than the ride to the Station, taking less than four hours from undocking to landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Read article

[ Blue dot ]

ARCHIVE CONTENT: 14 MAY. 2014

Space Station Science

Four years of training, a hair-raising launch strapped to 274 tonnes of rocket propellants, docking two spacecraft travelling at 28 800 km/h and living in one of the most inhospitable environments known. Space agencies would not consider these awe-inspiring undertakings without the unique opportunity for conducting science on the microgravity laboratory that is the International Space Station.

Read article