Heroes in spacesuits. Missiles soaring into the sky. People who explore distant worlds: Space travel is glamorous, no question about it. However, it also has its less glamorous sides – even if it is officially reluctant to talk about it.
The German astronaut Matthias Maurer does not have such scruples. A few days before his planned flight into space, he frankly talks about the not so pleasant aspects of launch preparation. About the enema, for example, that space travelers have to miss before their mission. “That is very important, it allows us to fly a little more relaxed,” says Maurer during a video link to journalists in Cape Canaveral. Many veteran space managers drop their jaws on site. – you can see that even behind the masks. Mason doesn’t care.
In the meantime, the Saarland native has all that behind him. On Thursday night, punctually at 3.03 a.m. German time, the 51-year-old took off into space – as the twelfth German, officially the 600th person in space and the first German citizen on board a space capsule from the private company SpaceX. Also the further flight of his fully automatic Dragon– Spaceships without problems, Maurer will reach his place of residence and work for the next six months on Friday night – just 22 hours after take-off: the International Space Station ISS.
Almost three years after Alexander Gerst, who was born in Wuerttemberg, would be back on board the orbital outpost. But while Gerst, who had outperformed Maurer in the European astronaut selection in 2009, is more likely to be perceived by the public as a sun boy, the six-year-old Maurer tries to give space travel more human features. “I’m not a superhero and I don’t want to be one either,” he said shortly before his start, which was recently postponed several times.
Mason doesn’t care much about conventions
In addition, the materials scientist with a doctorate does not pay much attention to conventions and public expectations – and not only when it comes to defecating issues: Maurer was able to put together a playlist for the 20-minute drive to the launch pad, for which SpaceX founder Elon Musk provided white Teslas. A song by the band Rammstein, criticized for its martial aesthetic, can be found there as well as the track “Tage wie hier” by the aging punk band “Die Toten Hosen” – small, personal freedoms in an otherwise strictly planned everyday astronaut’s life.
Ten hours before take-off, Maurer and his three colleagues from the US space agency NASA were woken up on Wednesday. This was followed by a medical check, medical cleaning (so the official jargon), a light, easily digestible meal. Certainly not something that is heavy on the stomach. “Not”, says Maurer, referring to the forces at the start and the subsequent weightlessness, “that the food comes through the mouth again.”
Then putting on the space suit – the German flag on the left, the logo of the European Space Agency Esa on the right upper arm. Then, as NASA TV pictures show, one last wave to the corona-related small crowd and the ride in the Tesla to the launch pad.
Look up at the rocket one last time – this is the new SpaceX tradition, even if this is only the third regular one Dragon-Flight to ISS is. Take the elevator up, get in, let yourself be lashed down. Finally, move the bucket seat, which is upright for boarding, into the lying position for takeoff. Maurer in seat No. 4, on the far outside, is only a passenger in all this, he has no function, he is a spectator, he is condemned to passivity. But that doesn’t matter to him either.
Maurer does – quite unglamorous – exactly what he has previously emphasized in almost every conversation: He enjoys his flight.