How old is Alexander Gerst?

Alexander Gerst was born on May 3, 1976, in Künzelsau, in Baden-Württemberg. He studied geophysics in Karlsruhe and New Zealand and earned his doctorate in Hamburg with a thesis on volcanology; his fieldwork took him, among other places, to the Antarctic volcano Erebus. In 2009, ESA brought him into its astronaut corps. The path through science is typical of the European corps: it looks less for test pilots than for researchers capable of precisely carrying out other people's experiments for half a year.

Gerst began his first flight in May 2014: the Blue Dot mission took him to the International Space Station for roughly half a year, where he also carried out a spacewalk. In 2018 he returned with the Horizons mission and took command of the station, becoming the first German in that role. Both stays focused on materials research, medicine, and Earth observation. The images of volcanoes, hurricanes, and cities at night that he published from the Cupola module made him known in Germany far beyond specialist circles.

At 50 (September 2026), Gerst is one of the experienced members of the European corps. In this profession, years usually pass between selection and the first launch: he was selected in 2009 and first lifted off in 2014. After his flights, he continued working for ESA, representing it publicly and in astronaut training, and is regarded as a possible candidate for future Moon missions, though no assignment has been confirmed.