Astronaut Maurer on the ISS mission: “The view of Earth was the most beautiful thing in space”

Six months in space was an experience for the German astronaut Maurer: He took part in 130 experiments and looked after space tourists. At one point he even felt like “Alice in Wonderland.”

A few days after returning to Earth from his first space mission, German astronaut Matthias Maurer spoke more about his time on the International Space Station at a press conference.

He feels wonderful at the moment, except for a little headache, says Maurer. He found that getting used to gravity was more strenuous than weightlessness. The flight from the USA to Cologne directly after his landing on earth he covered completely lying down in order to recover a little.

“Gravity also has advantages, namely that the food stays on the plate,” the astronaut said. In the meantime he has finally eaten pizza and other crispy things as well as well-seasoned Asian food.

Around the world in 90 minutes

For him, the most beautiful thing in space was the view of the earth from above, reported Maurer. “You can see things that you only learned in numbers before,” said the engineer. “And suddenly the heart understands what’s happening down there.”

If you circumnavigate the earth in 90 minutes, you understand “that everything is one unit” and that people have to take responsibility for the planet together.

Horror at the beginning of the Ukraine war

Thanks to news apps, he felt well informed about the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, said Maurer. Immediately afterwards, there was a certain amount of uncertainty on the ISS as to how the issue should be dealt with.

“Fortunately, it was the Russian colleagues who addressed it directly,” said Maurer. “Upstairs we were all of the same opinion: that we were all shocked and concerned about what happened on earth, there was no difference between us.”

Swapping rooms on the ISS

As a test, Maurer also swapped rooms with the Russian cosmonauts. “I had a new cabin in the Columbus module. The Russian colleagues said I’d like to sleep there too, let’s swap rooms,” said Maurer. “And then we did a bit of a shared flat exchange.”

Maurer drew mixed conclusions about the visit of space tourists to the ISS. While the stay of the Japanese space tourist Yusaku Maezawa in December went “excellent”, the space tourists from the USA needed a lot of help, explained Maurer. It got tight with eight people on the ISS.

“In the end we had to support them very strongly, which of course meant for us that our work was left undone,” said Maurer. There were not enough research opportunities for eight people, and sufficient support from Earth was also not possible. Overall, tourists need a “simpler infrastructure that is less error-prone”.

Future of space travel “commercial”

At the same time, the three entrepreneurs’ space visit, led by a former astronaut, also had a positive side: “Of course, these space tourists have a completely different network because they belong to a different social class,” said Maurer.

The entrepreneurs would also donate a lot of money for research privately. On the ISS, the astronauts suddenly had access to scientists and experiments “that would not have reached the top so quickly via the classic route of space travel”. He is certain that future space travel will be commercial.

Like “Alice in Wonderland” in outdoor use

Maurer returned to earth on Friday after six months on the ISS. The 52-year-old landed with three US colleagues on board a Dragon capsule from the private aerospace company SpaceX off the coast of Florida and then flew to Germany on board an Air Force aircraft. Maurer was the 600th human and the twelfth German in space.

On the ISS he participated in more than 130 experiments and completed one field mission. “That was actually the best day of this mission,” said Maurer. A space walk is something completely different than staying on the space station: “I felt like ‘Alice in Wonderland’.”