Alexander Gerst - Discovering New horizons
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'horizons' was the name of German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst's next mission. He took part in expedition 56/57, his second 'research voyage' to the International Space Station ISS, in June 2018. After the Belgian ESA astronaut, Frank de Winne, Gerst was the second European as commander of the ISS since October 2018. On 20 December 2018 Gerst returned together with Prokopjew and Auñón back to Earth. With the landing in Kazakhstan, the mission Horizons officially ended.
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Alexander Gerst remained in orbit, at an altitude of almost 400 kilometres, for six months. The name 'Horizons' symbolises the curiosity and fascination of exploring and researching the unknown.
Around 35 German experiments
German universities and research institutions, German companies and DLR as a research centre contributed approximately 35 experiments to the Horizons mission. Here, the planned range of topics extends from biological and medical experiments, to research topics from the fields of (astro)-physics and material sciences. They also include technology demonstrations, an education programme for children and adolescents, and industrially or commercially-motivated applications.