Alexander Gerst in spacesuit glove fit check

Alexander Gerst, German ESA astronaut, testing a spacesuit and its gloves in preparation for spacewalk training at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Alexander will fly to the International Space Station in 2014 for a six-month mission as a flight engineer of Expeditions 40 and 41.

Alexander Gerst was born in Künzelsau, Germany, in 1976. He 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.