After about half a year in space, German astronaut Matthias Maurer returned to earth on Friday. After a flight of around 24 hours on board a “Crew Dragon” capsule, Maurer and three US astronauts landed on Friday at 6.44 a.m. German time in the sea off the coast of the US state of Florida – and were therefore right on schedule: the landing was expected the crew for 6.43 a.m. Central European Time. The capsule undocked from the International Space Station on Thursday.
If everything goes according to plan, Maurer is expected back in Germany late Friday evening. He is to land on the military part of Cologne/Bonn Airport.
The 52-year-old Saarlander traveled to the outpost of humanity on November 11, 2021 with his three crewmates – the US astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn. During his time on the ISS, he had worked on numerous scientific experiments and also undertaken a spacewalk. The astronaut from the European space agency Esa was the twelfth German in space.