ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst will fly to the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft in June 2018.

It will be the second mission to space for the German astronaut. During his stay he will take over duties as commander of the Space Station.

This video shows Alexander training for his mission at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, USA. It includes interviews in English and German.

Alexander will spend some six months aboard for his Horizons mission, named for its goal of broadening our knowledge of Earth, low-Earth orbit and beyond.

Alexander has an exciting (and packed) schedule of science for Horizons. Over 50 European experiments are planned, targeting areas such as human ageing and medicine, climate, digitalisation and fundamental research.