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'Astro Alex' heads for ISS

May 28, 2014

The European Space Agency has launched a Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts bound for the International Space Station. Germany's Alexander "Astro Alex" Gerst is on board.

https://p.dw.com/p/1C8gy
Sojus TMA-13M ins All gestartet 28.5.2014
Image: Reuters

With a final tweet just before climbing into the Soyuz spacecraft at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Alexander Gerst bid farewell to Earth before a six-month deployment on the International Space Station.

Gerst, the third German to be stationed on the ISS, was joined in the spaceship with NASA's Reid Wiseman and Russia's Maxim Suraev.

Deutscher Astronaut Gerst mit Sojus ins All gestartet 28.5.2014
Alexander GerstImage: Reuters

The crew is expected to dock with the ISS early on Thursday morning.

Live coverage of the docking and opening of the hatch can be found on the ESA's website.

mz/jr (dpa, AFP)