Alexander in Soyuz

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst sitting in a Soyuz spacecraft that will take him to space and dock with the International Space Station.

Blue Dot is the name of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s six-month mission to the International Space Station launching May 2014.

He will serve as flight engineer for Expeditions 40 and 41. Alexander will be the sixth ESA astronaut on a long-duration mission in space and the third astronaut of German nationality to live on the International Space Station.

Alexander is leaving Earth from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan 28 May 2014. He will fly on a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Viktorovich Surayev and NASA astronaut Gregory Reid Wiseman.