- Title: German astronaut Alexander Gerst announces 'Horizons' ISS mission
- Date: 29th May 2017
- Summary: COLOGNE, GERMANY (MAY 29, 2017) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** EXTERIOR OF EUROPEAN SPACE STATION (ESA) SIGN READING 'ESA' MODEL OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) GERMAN ASTRONAUT ALEXANDER GERST ARRIVING CAMERAMAN FILMING AND PEOPLE TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS VARIOUS OF GERST SEATED GERST WALKING ONTO STAGE AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN ASTRONAUT ALEXANDER GERST, SAYING: "We humans, we are insland people. We are a species of explorers. And as island people look after the ocean around themselves and try to understand it, it is our responsibility in the face of the next generation to understand space." AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN ASTRONAUT ALEXANDER GERST, SAYING: "We learn at the ISS how to build a vehicle to go even further, to use the opportunities (to explore) and to look beyond our present horizons and discover what is more out there." AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN ASTRONAUT ALEXANDER GERST, SAYING: "And that is why we decided to call the ESA expedition to the International Space Station in 2018 'Horizons'." VARIOUS OF GERST UNVEILING NAME FOR ESA MISSION AUDIENCE AND PAN TO UNVEILING CEREMONY GERST
- Embargoed: 12th June 2017 12:14
- Keywords: ISS International Space Station German astronaut Alexander Gerst
- Location: COLOGNE, GERMANY
- City: COLOGNE, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Science,Space Exploration
- Reuters ID: LVA0016IW4LZB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:German astronaut Alexander Gerst on Monday (May 29) announced that the new ESA mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will be called 'Horizons'.
The 41-year-old Gerst will be the stations first German commander during the new mission, which is to run from April to October 2018.
Gerst said that the work the ISS will be carrying out will be an opportunity 'to look beyond our present horizons' - hence the mission's name.
The Horizons mission is scheduled to take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan in April, 2018.
Gerst first travelled to the ISS in 2014 as part of the Blue Dot mission. He and his space colleagues, a veteran Russian cosmonaut and an International Space Station crewmate from the United States, spend five and a half months in orbit.
The space station, which has been permanently staffed since November 2000, is owned and run by a partnership of 15 nations. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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