Alexander space helmet

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst testing his Russian Sokol spacesuit for the last time before his launch to the International Space Station in May 2014.

Alexander has been training for his mission since 2011 after he was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009. Based at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, his space adventure has taken him to Canada, USA, Japan and Russia for training with robots, spacecraft, hypergravity and survival techniques.