space
Ex-space chief Wörner: No walk in the park for bricklayers
Jan Wörner, then Director General of ESA, at a conference in Berlin. Photo: Soeren Stache/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Esa astronaut Matthias Maurer is the fourth German to get out into the open cosmos. In addition to the danger, the work, which lasts several hours, is very exhausting, emphasizes his former boss.
Europe’s former head of space travel, Jan Wörner, has described the forthcoming field mission by ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer as a highlight of the German astronaut’s mission.
The more than six-hour maintenance work outside the ISS space station this Wednesday is no easy task and, in addition to the danger, is very exhausting, Wörner told the German Press Agency. «The first so-called EVAs were carried out during the Cold War to demonstrate efficiency. Alexei Leonov’s very first mission in 1965 almost ended in disaster as he struggled to get back into the capsule.”
«Neither prestige nor adventure»
Today, such missions would have a factual sense. «It is neither prestige nor adventure. It’s always about special tasks that have to be carried out outside of the ISS and cannot be done by the robotic arm,” explained Wörner. Maurer is involved in several work on the temperature control of the ISS, the replacement of a camera and work on the European module Columbus.
With regard to the Ukraine conflict, the current President of the German Academy of Science and Engineering said it was good that the ISS peacefully united astronauts from different countries even in difficult political times. “On board are Russians, Americans and a European: Matthias Maurer from Saarland. In the past, space travel has bridged conflicts on earth – the ISS is a symbol of this.” From 2015 to February 2021, Wörner headed the European space agency ESA in Paris.
Maurer left for the ISS on November 11 with three colleagues from the US space agency Nasa. He is the twelfth German in space and the fourth on the outpost of humanity. Together with his US colleague Raja Chari, he takes on the field mission around 400 kilometers above the earth. Maurer is scheduled to return to Earth at the end of April.