Status: 05/06/2022 07:36 a.m
German astronaut Matthias Maurer is back on earth. Shortly before 7 a.m. European time, the “Crew Dragon” capsule with four astronauts on board splashed down off the coast of Florida. Maurer is still expected in Cologne today.
After six months on the International Space Station ISS, the German astronaut Matthias Maurer has returned to earth. After a flight of around 24 hours, the Dragon capsule “Endurance” landed in the water with Maurer and three US colleagues off the Florida coast.
A live stream from the US space agency NASA showed how the space capsule of the private space company SpaceX fell into the sea on parachutes. After landing, ships with salvage teams set course for the space capsule, which weighs around three tons.
The space capsule landed off the coast of Florida.
The ferry carrying Maurer and astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn undocked from the ISS on Thursday. Three Russians, three Americans and one Italian work at the outpost of humanity around 400 kilometers above the earth.
Return to Germany today
Maurer is now being taken directly to the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, where he is expected late in the evening. He is to land at the military part of Cologne/Bonn Airport.
The 52-year-old from Saarland traveled to the ISS with his three crew colleagues on November 11, 2021. During his 177-day mission, dubbed “Cosmic Kiss,” he was involved in more than 100 experiments. In addition, Maurer completed a multi-hour field assignment for repair and maintenance work on the ISS.
600th human in space
The results of the experiments “will help us to better understand terrestrial problems in biology, medicine and materials science, among other things,” said the CEO of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla.
“Welcome home,” wrote Europe’s space chief Josef Aschbacher on Twitter. Volker Schmid, manager of the Maurer mission at DLR, spoke of an “enormous workload” that Maurer “mastered with flying colours”.
The ESA astronaut with a doctorate in materials science was the 600th human and 12th German in space.
splashdown! Astronaut Maurer is back on earth
Julia Kastein, ARD Washington, 6.5.2022 06:59 a.m