Alexander Gerst
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.
Alexander Gerst

NASA · https: (direct link) · Public domain
- Born
- 1976.
- Nationality
- Germany.
- Occupation
- astronaut, geophysicist, volcanologist and actor.
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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.
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Alexander Gerst (born 1976) is an actor, astronaut and geophysicist, among other activities, of German nationality. The actor was born in Künzelsau.
Alexander Gerst was educated at University of Hamburg, University of Karlsruhe and Victoria University of Wellington. The actor worked for European Space Agency. Activity centred on astronautics, geophysics and volcanology.
Languages used include English, German and Russian. Honours include Bernd Rendel Prize, Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg and Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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wikidata · Q71248 · wikipedia · Alexander Gerst
In this article
Education and research
Education and research
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.
Gerst graduated from the Technical High School in Öhringen, Germany, in 1995. While in high school, he volunteered as a scout leader, firefighter, and water rescue lifeguard. Gerst studied at the University of Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Germany, where he received a degree in geophysics with distinction. From 1998 to 2003 Gerst participated in several international scientific collaborations and field experiments, including some in remote locations such as Antarctica. From 2001 to 2003, Gerst studied for a master's degree in earth sciences at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. While researching his master's thesis, he developed volcano monitoring techniques that might improve forecasts of volcanic eruptions. His results were published in Science Magazine. Gerst worked as a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Hamburg between 2004 and 2009, and received his doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Hamburg in 2010, with a dissertation on geophysics and volcanic eruption dynamics at Mount Erebus volcano in Antarctica. In 2007 Gerst received the Bernd Rendel award for outstanding research from the German Research Foundation (DFG). He has published several papers, including one in Nature.
In ESA
In ESA
Gerst was selected as an astronaut in 2009 by the European Space Agency. In September 2019, he participated in the ESA CAVES mission of the European Space Agency alongside Janette Epps, Takuya Onishi, Joshua Kutryk, Joe Acaba and Nikolay Chub. In 2022, he participated in the ESA PANGAEA training course, in its sessions in Bletterbach (ITA), Nordlingen-Ries (GER) and Lanzarote (SPA) together with NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson and in the Lofoten session together with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
Expedition 40/41
Expedition 40/41
He visited space as part of the Expedition 40/41 International Space Station crew from May to November 2014. On 7 October 2014, Gerst performed his first extravehicular activity (EVA) with Reid Wiseman. The astronauts moved a failed cooling pump from temporary to long-term storage on the station's truss. They also installed a new relay system that will provide backup power options to the mobile transporter, which moves the large robotic arm around the out outside of the space station. The duration of the EVA was 6 hours and 13 minutes. On 10 November 2014, he landed on Earth in the same Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft that flew him to the International Space Station on 28 May along with Russian commander Maxim Suraev and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman. Gerst's six-month mission to the ISS was named "Blue Dot". The mission's name is reminiscent of Carl Sagan's description of Earth as a Pale Blue Dot as seen on a photograph taken by NASA's Voyager mission. The mission experiments included experiments in physical science, biology, human physiology, radiation research, and technology demonstrations. Educational outreach included educational videos as part of the "flying classroom" and set of experiments performed in microgravity.
Expedition 56/57
Expedition 56/57
Gerst launched his second tour to the ISS on Soyuz MS-09 on 6 June 2018, as part of Expedition 56/57. He is the commander of the ISS for Expedition 57. He will bring a robot assistant called "CIMON". He was the second European Space Agency astronaut to command the station, after Frank de Winne commanded Expedition 21, and also the youngest astronaut to command the station, at age 42 as of October 2018. In May 2017, his mission name and logo were announced, called "Horizons". On 20 July 2018, while on the ISS, Gerst took part in a live concert by the German electronic music group Kraftwerk in the German city of Stuttgart. He addressed the audience and played a synthesizer during the performance of the song "Spacelab". On 20 December 2018, he and his crewmates Serena Aunon-Chancellor and Sergey Prokopyev returned to Earth and landed in Kazakhstan after 197 days in space, combined with the 165 days in space on his last mission, Gerst has 362 days in space, more than any other ESA astronaut in history. In 2020, Luca Parmitano surpassed this record with 367 days in space.
Personal life
Personal life
Gerst is single, and in his spare time he enjoys mountaineering, diving, climbing and skydiving. Gerst is a licensed radio amateur (KF5ONO) and has participated in several ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) educational contacts.
In popular culture
In popular culture
Some of Gerst's background and appearance is incorporated into the character of Alex Vogel, a German astronaut and part of the crew of the Hermes vessel in the 2015 science-fiction film The Martian.

Alexander Gerst, official portrait cropped
Robert Markowitz · File:Alexander Gerst, official portrait.jpg cropped

Alexander Gerst auf der re:publica 2015
Netaction
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1976
Alexander Gerst born at Künzelsau.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.An astronaut returns to Earth.
- 2.European Space Agency. Alexander Gerst.
- 3.Gerst, Alexander. Temporal Changes in Seismic Anisotropy as a New Eruption Forecasting Tool. Open Access Repository Victoria University of Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington. 2003. 10.26686/wgtn.16910776.
- 4.Gerst, Alexander. Seismic Anisotropy Beneath Ruapehu Volcano: A Possible Eruption Forecasting Tool. Science. 306. 5701. 1543–1547. 26 November 2004. 10.1126/science.1103445.
- 5.DFG. List of all prize recipients of the Bernd Rendel Prize.
- 6.Johnson, Jeffrey B. Long-period earthquakes and co-eruptive dome inflation seen with particle image velocimetry. Nature. 456. 7220. 377–381. 20 November 2008. 10.1038/nature07429.
- 7.European Space Agency. ESA prepares for the next generation of human spaceflight and exploration by recruiting a new class of European astronauts. 20 May 2009.
- 8.Meet the cavenauts – Alexander Gerst – Caves & pangaea blog.
- 9.Cave life for space – Caves & pangaea blog.
- 10.Sauro, Francesco. Speleology as an analogue to space exploration: The ESA CAVES training programme. Acta Astronautica. 184. 150–166. 1 July 2021. 0094-5765.
- 11.Alex on the rocks. www.esa.int.
- 12.Sauro, Francesco. Training astronauts for scientific exploration on planetary surfaces: The ESA PANGAEA programme. Acta Astronautica. 204. 222–238. 1 March 2023. 0094-5765.
- 13.What is Pangaea?. www.esa.int.
- 14.Training astronauts to be scientists on the Moon. www.esa.int.
- 15.Gearing up for the Moon with Pangaea. www.esa.int.
- 16.Clark, Stephen. Mission Status Center. Spaceflight Now.
- 17.NASA. Expedition 41 Lands Safely in Kazakhstan. 9 November 2014.
- 18.Alexander Gerst. ESA. 9 February 2018.
- 19.ESA. Introducing Blue Dot. 14 November 2014.
- 20.ESA. Pale Blue Dot:Lessons from space.
- 21.ESA. Pale Blue Dot:Flying classroom.
- 22.faz. Alexander Gerst wird erster deutscher Kommandant im All. Faz.net. 18 May 2016.
- 23.Clark, Stephen. First German commander among astronauts named for station flights. Spaceflight Now.
- 24.IBM is launching a floating, talking robotic head into space that will work with astronauts. Business Insider.
- 25.Good evening, Kraftwerk!. esa.int.
- 26.Soyuz Crew Returns to Earth After a Memorable 6 Months in Space. Space.com. 20 December 2018.
- 27.International Space Travellers.
- 28.American Radio Relay League. International Space Station Briefly "Ham-less" After Crew Members Return to Earth.
- 29.Schepers, Andreas. The Martian (Film) – augenzwinkernde Hommage an ESA-Astronaut Alexander Gerst. www.andreas.de. 5 August 2015.
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