Dr Alexander Gerst aka "Astro Alex" has spent almost a year in space, having completed two missions on the International Space Station (I.S.S.). The European Space Agency astronaut launched on a Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan in May 2014 to serve six months as flight engineer, and returned last year as Commander of the I.S.S. for the Horizons mission, returning to Earth on 20 December 2018. His onboard experiments and insights into what it's like to live in space have won him a large social media following and credit as a science communicator. He'll explain what these long space missions have taught him about humanity, our future, and the Earth-bound life he has to leave behind. He has been in New Zealand to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from Victoria University of Wellington where he completed a Master's in volcanology in 2003.