In June 2018 german ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst will fly to the International Space Station ISS for the second time in his career. He will take over command of the ISS for the second half of his mission, called ‘Horizons’.

This video shows Alexander training for his mission at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, USA.

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.