After a six-month stint on the International Space Station (ISS) that ended this past November, it's high time for another high point: Alexander Gerst has been honored with the Federal Cross of Merit.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
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An astronaut's view
In space, German astronaut Alexander Gerst was able to take stunning images of the Earth's surface. Experiments conducted by the international team may also benefit the Earth and its people.
Image: ESA/NASA
More than science
"Hello Berlin, I don't see any borders from up here!" Gerst tweeted on November 9th 2014, the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Apart from conducting a number of experiments in various scientific disciplines, Alexander Gerst had another important mission: to show people on Earth how beautiful and fascinating our "Blue Dot" is.
Image: Alexander Gerst/ESA/picture-alliance/dpa
Breathtaking phenomenon
"Words can't describe how it feels flying through an Aurora" - that's how Alexander Gerst described his experience with this natural phenomenon. Although he found it difficult to capture the experience in words, he was able to conduct research into auroras. One aim was to investigate the influence of our planet's electromagnetic forces on electronic devices at the International Space Station.
Even on Earth, one rarely gets to see the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. Alexander Gerst was fortunate to get this great shot from space of the Northern Lights in the polar region.
Image: ESA/NASA
Geochallenge
It is neither a mountain, nor a vulcano. In fact, this picture taken by Alexander Gerst shows Barringer Meteorite Crater in Arizona. Gerst would often share his photos on social media with the hashtag #geochallenge, challenging the public to try and figure out where the geographical feature might be.
It looks like a tiny hole, but actually measures 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide. Despite its interesting appearance, typhoons like this one can cause tremendous damage on the Earth's surface. "From up here it is surprisingly obvious that our world is one connected system," Gerst observed from space.
On thing that makes Alexander Gerst's photos so beautiful and fascinating is how they are unstaged, authentic snapshots. In this image, which Gerst tweeted as the saddest photo he's taken yet, explosions and rockets are visible in Gaza and Israel.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/ESA/NASA
Scientific purposes
Gerst's images, including this one of windswept valleys in North Africa, can be compared to previous, similar images. This helps scientists observe changes on the Earth's surface and determine whether they are natural or manmade.
The circles on this image are not the work of aliens, but rather irrigated agricultural fields in arid regions of Mexico. Some of Gerst's experiments dealt with food - for example, the astronauts grew edible plants on the space station to see if they could develop methods to use water more efficiently.
Image: ESA/NASA
Works of art
Some images Gerst took look like the works of a talented painter. This image shows a river in Kazakhstan snaking its way through the landscape. Defunct bends of the river are also visible, and one can imagine how it's likely to change course again in the future.
Image: ESA/NASA
Different view of infinity
"When light from the Cupola tints ISS orange inside, I can tell we're over Africa without even looking out the window," Gerst had tweeted. The Sahara Desert is perceived to be endless - when one is in it. But as this image of Libya shows, even the sand dunes there have a beginning and an end.
Image: ESA/NASA
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It's a great moment for Germany's favorite astronaut, Alexander Gerst: German President Joachim Gauck has awarded him the Federal Cross of Merit.
He's not the only one who is happy about it -about 200,000 people follow 38-year-old Alexander Gerst on Twitter, wherever he goes. But a great deal of work lies behind his fame.
Under Gerst's Twitter handle @Astro-Alex - by which he is perhaps better known than his real name - he tweeted before, during and after his stint on the ISS. The account has registered nearly 3,000 Tweets since its inception.
Mission within a mission
To Gerst, being an astronaut seemed to be an affair of the heart. His enthusiasm and social media savvy generated excitement and interest where there was none before for space travel, astronauts and the ISS.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
Now, his hard work and outstanding spirit has been awarded with a Federal Cross of Merit: one of the highest honors that the Federal Republic of Germany can confer.
"I'll soon be with President Gauck," Gerst tweeted. "I must admit, I am a bit nervous. I somehow feel better prepared for going out into space!"
Beer and experiments
Gerst was the 11th German to travel into space. Originally a geophysicist, he was selected to become an astronaut by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009, and left for the ISS on May 28, 2014.
The German astronaut quickly became a social media darling. He shared not only interesting insights into his work, but personal information as well. Those who followed Gerst's Blue Dot mission came to know that Gerst missed beer and pizza the most while in space. #
But they also learned detailed information on the experiments he conducted - and could even watch him on his spacewalk, along with his colleague Reid Wiseman from the United States.
During those six hours in open space, Gerst and Wiseman managed cleanup, replacement and installation tasks on the exterior of the station. Before Gerst, only two other Germans had ever "walked" in space: Thomas Reiter and Hans Schlegel.
Gerst also followed current events down on earth, calling a picture he took of rockets exploding over Israel and Gaza "his saddest photo yet."
The astronaut shared pictures of himself wearing a team jersey of the German national football team after they won the World Cup. A photo of Berlin on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, was captioned saying that no borders are visible from so far away.
While on the ISS, Gerst also fielded questions from schoolchildren, and maintained a blog detailing the progress of his experiments.
