Countdown: German astronaut Alexander Gerst leaves Earth for the ISS

May 26, 2014: final hours before lift-off

It's getting serious: Alexander Gerst is ready for his trip into space. And it's just hours to go. Everything is ready at Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Alex and his team take off in a Soyuz rocket on Wednesday (28.05.2014) at 9.56 pm Central European Summer Time.

The crew will be catapulted into space with 26 million horsepower, costing 300 tons of fuel. It should take them around six hours to reach their goal.

May 23, 2014: 6,000 hours of training

It's been four and a half years since Alex was selected to be an astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA). In that time he has

gone through 3,000 hours of ESA training, undergone medical exams, participated in PR events and

spent 3,000 hours at the ISS partner countries' training centers in the US, Canada, Russia and Japan.

Gerst has also flown about 400,000 kilometers (249,000 miles), which equals almost 500 flights to the ISS and back.

But that's nothing compared to what awaits him during his real mission. Here's what Alex writes in his blog:

"On board the ISS, we will travel almost double the distance that I have traveled over the last four years - every day! In the space of 24 hours, we'll experience 16 sundowns and sunrises. I can't wait!"

Read the rest here:

Countdown: German astronaut Alexander Gerst leaves Earth for the ISS

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