Alexander Gerst

Alexander Gerst
Born	(1976-05-03) 3 May 1976 (age 48) Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Status	Active
Occupation	Geophysicist
Awards	Bernd-Rendel-Preis
Space career
ESA astronaut
Time in space	362 days 1 hour 50 mins
Selection	2009 ESA Group
Total EVAs	1
Total EVA time	6 hours 13 minutes
Missions	Soyuz TMA-13M (Expedition 40/41) Soyuz MS-09 (Expedition 56/57)
Mission insignia
Website	alexandergerst.esa.int

Alexander Gerst (born 3 May 1976 in Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg) is a German European Space Agency 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.^[1] 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.