Imperial alum Andreas Mogensen becomes ISS commander

Astronaut and Imperial graduate Andreas Mogensen has become commander of the International Space Station (ISS). On 26th September 2023, he took over from Sergey Prokopyev. He piloted SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft to the station, becoming the first non-American to serve as pilot of a US spacecraft.

Mogensen studied at Imperial from 1995 to 1999, obtaining an MEng degree in Aeronautics. In 2007, he earned a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He was selected as an astronaut by the European Space Agency (ESA) two years later, when he was working at Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey.

In 2015, Mogensen became the first Dane in space when he flew to the ISS as part of the ‘iriss’ mission. He said his journey to become an astronaut started when he was a student at Imperial; he went on two expeditions to South America, supported by Imperial’s Exploration board. Mogensen said he was asked about the expeditions during the ESA’s astronaut selection process.

The commander of the ISS is responsible for the safety, health and wellbeing of the space station’s crew, and works with the flight director on the ground to oversee operations on the station. Mogensen is the sixth European to take on the role, and will serve for the remainder of his mission, which ends in early 2024. By the end of the mission, he will be the longest-serving European ISS commander.