SecondThe first time in three years is Matthias Maurer Another German astronaut set off for the International Space Station ISS. The 51-year-old Saarland started work with three NASA colleagues on the “Crew Dragon” at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida on Thursday using the “Falcon 9” rocket. There were several delays before the start-first because of bad weather conditions, then because of a “minor illness” of a crew member, and finally another crew member had to be picked up from the International Space Station.
After about 22 hours of flying, Maurer and his NASA colleagues Thomas Marshburn, Raja Charlie, and Kyra Barron-the so-called “Crew 3”-should be on Friday International Space Station Docking. Maurer is now the twelfth German in space and will be the fourth on the International Space Station-and the first to fly for the private space agency SpaceX in a “crew dragon” owned by Elon Musk . This is the third time that SpaceX has used a spacecraft to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. The “Crew Dragon” manned test has been successfully conducted before.
Six months at 400 kilometers above sea level
Maurer should conduct extensive experiments on the International Space Station for about six months at an altitude of about 400 kilometers, and astronaut The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) may also complete an external mission. The last time a German Esa astronaut entered space was Alexander Gerst in 2018.
The 51-year-old Maurer was the oldest German astronaut to fly for the first time.The person with a PhD in materials science left this There are more than 8,000 candidates behind him and he has been training for the weightless journey for many years.
In fact, Maurer should have met his French colleague Thomas Pesquet on the International Space Station, who has been there since April. Due to the large number of shifts, Pesquet and his crew-NASA astronauts Shane Kimbro and Meghan MacArthur and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide-can’t wait to wait for the arrival of “Crew Three”. Return to Earth on Tuesday. Following Maurer, Italian Esa astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti plans to fly to the International Space Station in 2022-this will be the first time three Esa astronauts have boarded the space station one after another.
