German astronaut Maurer and crew leave space capsule

Created: 05/06/2022Updated: 05/06/2022 07:55

Astronaut Matthias Maurer looks at the earth.

© --/NASA/ESA-M.Maurer/dpa/Handout

The German astronaut Matthias Maurer and his crew left their space capsule after the water landing off the US coast.

A live stream from the US space agency Nasa showed on Friday how salvage teams on board a ship took the four astronauts out of the hatch on stretchers.

Cape Canaveral - Muscles and vestibular system are still weak after the 177-day mission in weightlessness.

Dressed in black and white space suits, the quartet waved to the cameras.

First of all, a short medical check should be carried out by a flight doctor.

The approximately three-ton "Crew Dragon" space capsule of the private US company SpaceX had previously landed after a flight of around 24 hours from the International Space Station ISS in the Gulf of Mexico.

A crane lifted the Endurance ferry carrying Maurer and astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn onto a ship.

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Maurer had been researching scientific experiments at the outpost of humanity since November 2021.

The astronaut from the European space agency Esa was the twelfth German in the cosmos.

He is expected back in Germany late Friday evening.

dpa