May 26, 2014: final hours before lift-off <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
May 23, 2014: 6,000 hours of training <\/p>\n
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 <\/p>\n
gone through 3,000 hours of ESA training, undergone medical exams, participated in PR events and <\/p>\n
spent 3,000 hours at the ISS partner countries' training centers in the US, Canada, Russia and Japan. <\/p>\n
Gerst has also flown about 400,000 kilometers (249,000 miles), which equals almost 500 flights to the ISS and back. <\/p>\n
But that's nothing compared to what awaits him during his real mission. Here's what Alex writes in his blog: <\/p>\n
\"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!\" <\/p>\n
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Read the rest here:<\/p>\n
Countdown: German astronaut Alexander Gerst leaves Earth for the ISS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. Continue reading