Preparing for the unknown
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by Alexander
4y ago
How do you prepare for the things you don’t know? That’s right – it’s tricky. And it’s one of the fundamental problems of space flight. With projects like the International Space Station (ISS), in 20 years of operation, we have gained a knowledge base that is large enough to prepare astronauts for most of the situations they can expect in a long duration mission to Low Earth Orbit. Even though most of them have not flown to space, our impressive team of instructors at the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and Roscosmos have a vast amount of experience and intuition, which they pass on to futur ..read more
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Cave life for space
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by Alexander
4y ago
Before I realised it, the cave clamped down on me. A completely different world surrounded me, absorbing all my attention. This was not a simulation, but real exploration in a hostile environment dominated by darkness. Darkness was my steady companion during the six days of underground life with ESA’s CAVES training course. Don’t be deceived by the spectacular images of the underworld. Professional photographers meticulously lit up the caverns to show them in all their glory. In reality, we could barely see what waited for us a few metres ahead, outside the reach of our head lamps. The limitat ..read more
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Meet the cavenaut Alexander Gerst
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by Nadjejda
4y ago
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has spent over 5700 sunrises and sunsets in space, yet he has never been more than a day in the total darkness of a cave on Earth. “I have been to several caves for small trips, but I haven’t really spent a long time in them. One very special thing that I have seen are the ice caves of Mount Erebus in Antarctica,” Alexander says. Geophysicist, volcanologist and more recently International Space Station commander, Alexander is looking forward to adding more skills and knowledge to his tool set for space exploration with the new CAVES 2019 astronaut training course ..read more
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Closing the loop on Space Station science
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by Ally
4y ago
Scientist in ESA’s Human Spaceflight programme Elizabeth Heider shares her experiences of a recent science debrief with ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst following the 2018 Horizons mission. The version below has been edited for length. See the full article on LinkedIn. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s 197-day Horizons mission finished just before Christmas on 20 December 2018. His Soyuz capsule skidded along the hot plasma of Earth’s upper atmosphere, heat shields reaching temperatures of 2500 degrees Celsius before the white and red parachute billowed behind it, setting it down on the snowy field ..read more
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Return to Star City
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by Ally
4y ago
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst returned to Star City, Moscow, this week where he attended a traditional welcome home ceremony alongside NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev at the Yuri Gagarin Training Center (GCTC). Serena, Sergei and Alexander by the Yuri Gagarin monument. Held on Tuesday 12 February, almost two months after the trio’s return from the International Space Station on 20 December 2018, the ceremony saw Alexander, Sergei and Serena lay flowers at the monument of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and receive gifts from friends and colleagues ..read more
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Back to Earth – crew support
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by Ally
4y ago
From coordinating the development of space food to accompanying astronauts into quarantine and managing family travel budgets, the role of crew support at ESA is never boring. Unit lead Romain Charles describes it as: “facilitating the daily lives of astronauts so they can focus on their missions”. We asked the team to tell us more about this vital and varied role. ESA’s Crew Support team led by ESA astronaut Tim Peake. Credit: ESA ”When an astronaut is assigned to a mission, they enter a period of intensive training,” Romain explains. “They spend a lot of time in Russia and the United State ..read more
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Destination: Space Station, Moon and Mars
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by julien
4y ago
Moon, Mars, Station. Credits: ESA–A. Gerst Inspired by an image ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took of Mars and Moon from the International Space Station last June, we launched a challenge to our followers to capture in one shot a picture of the three destinations of ESA’s human and robotic exploration programme: Space Station, the eclipsed Moon and Mars. The results were phenomenal and more than we ever expected for a photography challenge that was far from easy. Careful planning, luck and determination was necessary to see the Red Planet and the reddish eclipsed Moon as the International Sp ..read more
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First interview back on Earth
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by Nadjejda
4y ago
Just hours after returning from his Horizons mission on board the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst gives a short interview at the German Aerospace Centre’s :envihab facility in Cologne, Germany. Alexander returned to Earth alongside crew mates Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Sergei Prokopyev on 20 December 2018 in the same Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft that flew them to the Station on 6 June 2018. The trio’s landing in the Kazakh steppe marked the successful conclusion of over six months in space during which Alexander conducted over 60 European experiments, became the second e ..read more
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A warm welcome to Europe
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by Ally
4y ago
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has completed the final leg of his journey from the International Space Station to Europe. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst arrives at the airfield in Cologne, Germany. ESA/DLR. Alexander’s plane landed at the at the military area of Cologne/Bonn Airport in Germany at 19:45 CET today. There he was greeted by media and VIPs before making his way to the Germany Aerospace Centre’s :envihab facility next to ESA’s astronaut centre. First pictures of returning astronaut @Astro_Alex disembarking the aircraft to speak to media in Cologne, Germany. Next stop @DLR_en's :env ..read more
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Alexander’s second ride back to Earth
Alexander Gerst's Blog
by julien
4y ago
After six months in space ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev returned home from the International Space Station. The trio said their farewells to the three astronauts they left behind on the Space Station, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, NASA astronaut Anne McClain and Roscosmos commander Oleg Kononenko.   Last view before getting in the Soyuz. Alexander in the Soyuz before closing the hatch. Credits: NASA The hatches between the spacecraft and the International Space Station were closed at 22:40 ..read more
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