As of: 03/23/2022 4:02 p.m
Premiere for the German astronaut Maurer: After three months on the ISS space station, he is completing his first external mission. In the next few hours, he and a US colleague are supposed to repair the cooling system and install data cables.
Feet first, German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer entered space from the ISS. During his first field assignment, the man from Saarland will work with his colleague Raja Chari from NASA to repair the station’s cooling system and replace an outside camera.
The operation is scheduled for six hours. The two astronauts are also to install power and data cables at an altitude of 400 kilometers in order to make the external European research platform “Bartolomeo” operational. The Airbus platform is the first European commercial facility built outside of the ISS. The whole Escape will be broadcast live.
First of all, the helmet camera malfunctioned
After Maurer and Chari left the space station via an airlock at around 1.50 p.m. Central European Time, they first checked each other’s space suits and equipment for possible malfunctions outside the ISS. It turned out that Maurer’s helmet camera and light were shaking. With the support of the NASA team on Earth, a short-term solution to the problem was developed.
The 52-year-old Maurer is the twelfth German in space and the fourth on the ISS. On November 11, he flew with three colleagues from the US space agency NASA in a US spacecraft to the ISS, where he is to remain until the end of April.
Roskosmos is keeping a low profile
The crew of the ISS received reinforcements on Sunday. Three cosmonauts docked with the space station in their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft. At the end of March, the two cosmonauts who arrived earlier on the ISS should return to Earth with their US colleague in a Russian Soyuz space capsule
Since the US and Europe have imposed sanctions on Russia in the wake of the war of aggression against Ukraine, cooperation has been severely strained. However, both sides emphasize that they want to continue operating the ISS for the time being. However, the Russian space agency Roskosmos recently left the future of the ISS open after the contract expired in 2024.
Launches for Galileo satellites are cancelled
The invasion of Ukraine is already having an impact on other areas of space travel. The aerospace group OHB from Bremen had to cancel the transport of the navigation satellite Galileo into space for this year. This was announced by CEO Marco Fuchs at a balance sheet press conference. “This year there will be no launches with the Soyuz rockets,” said Fuchs.
A total of ten first-generation satellites are still on the ground. These would have to be stored first. Since the Ariane 6 rocket is not quite ready, the group wants to examine alternatives. Possible launches with the American SpaceX or the Indian carrier rocket PSLV are under discussion. “But I don’t think it’s possible to do that in the short term,” said Fuchs.