#Astro_Alex to present new mission patch

For two and a half years Alexander Gerst has had firm ground under his feet. But between May and November 2014 the geophysicist spent 166 days in space, living and researching aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

This time he will command the mission - the first time a German will take that responsibility aboard the ISS. He will present the new mission patch and the scheduled timing of the flight on Monday May 29, 2017 in Cologne.

But in reality Gerst must already have a pretty good idea about the flight schedule, since he has been preparing for the new mission since March 2016. Here you can read what tasks he will have to fulfill in his new function.

One thing is certain however: #Astro_Alex will be keeping friends and fans well informed on social media during his next flight - as he has done in the past.

The number of his twitter followers has more than doubled since the Blue-Dot mission: at the time he had 286,000 followers. Now the figure is up to 706,000.

And he certainly will excite lots of young scientists for space research. For example, during his last flight, among his many outreach-activities, Gerst conducted a live conference with a school in Germany from orbit.

We are anxious to see what he and the European Space Agency have planned for the next mission. And we will follow the presentation of the new mission patch live on twitter and of course, here.