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Astronaut Matthias Maurer does not fly into space - NASA postpones flight to the ISS

2021-10-30T09:15:31.598Z


Nasa had to postpone the mission "Cosmic Kiss" due to bad weather conditions. The flight to the ISS with Matthias Maurer (51) from Saarland is not due to start until Wednesday.


Nasa had to postpone the mission "Cosmic Kiss" due to bad weather conditions.

The flight to the ISS with Matthias Maurer (51) from Saarland is not due to start until Wednesday.

Cape Canaveral - A flight to the international space station with the German astronaut Matthias Maurer has been postponed by NASA.

As Nasa announced on Saturday, the flight is now planned for Wednesday (November 3rd).

Actually, the “Cosmic Kiss” mission should have started on Sunday (October 31), bringing Matthias Maurer a German astronaut into space for the first time in three years.

The flight had to be postponed due to bad weather conditions.

German astronaut flies to the ISS with SpaceX from Elon Musk

Together with Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, the 51-year-old from Saarland flies from Cape Canaveral in Florida, known as the “spaceport”, to the International Space Station ISS. The four astronauts fly in a "Crew Dragon" from the private space company SpaceX owned by Elon Musk. With this mission, Maurer will be the twelfth German in space, the fourth on the ISS and the first to fly there with a “Crew Dragon”.

The astronauts will carry out more than a hundred experiments over a period of six months at an altitude of around 400 kilometers.

Maurer is also expected to be used for an outdoor assignment.

36 of the experiments carried out on the “Cosmic Kiss” mission were developed in Germany.

Astronaut Matthias Maurer and his crew want to do research in the areas of physics, biology, medicine and artificial intelligence and try out new technologies in the process.

Years of preparation: Maurer prevailed against 8,500 applicants

New launch date and time for # Crew3 launch to the International @Space_Station due to weather predictions.



📅🚀: 06:10 CET (05:10 GMT) on November 3, 2021.



Watch live: https://t.co/WXaqg2FMmz #CosmicKiss pic.twitter.com/EPTHhlvFKW

- Human Spaceflight (@esaspaceflight) October 30, 2021

For Maurer, his first space mission "Cosmic Kiss" fulfilled a dream for which he fought hard and trained for years.

In 2008 it applied to a call for tenders from the European Space Agency (ESA), which was looking for new astronauts.

"It was immediately clear to me: this is my thing," said the doctor of materials science at

Bayerischer

Rundfunk

.

He prevailed against almost 8,500 applicants.

As one of only ten candidates, Maurer passed the multi-stage selection process and was accepted into the current European astronaut corps in 2015 as the second German after Alexander Gerst.

In 2018 he was finally able to complete his basic training as an astronaut.

Astronaut Maurer: "If you lose contact with the station, you are space junk"

For the ISS expedition, Maurer completed a tough program, including survival training in the cold and on the water. He was also prepared for spacecraft missions. To simulate this, he trained underwater with a 200 kilogram spacesuit - secured in two places with tethers. "If you lose contact with the station, then you are space junk," he said on

ZDF

. A tight program awaits the materials scientist during his six-month stay on the ISS.

Every day follows a timetable like in school, which tells him exactly when he has to devote himself to which scientific experiments.

During his mission, Maurer wants to stay in close contact with the people on earth.

Among other things, he plans to record 360-degree videos.

He already answers questions about the mission “Cosmic Kiss”, the ISS in general and his job on Twitter under the hashtag “AskMatthias”.

(at / dpa / afp)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-10-30

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