Crew Dragon capsule on a "Falcon 9" rocket
Photo: MIKE BLAKE / REUTERS
The German Esa astronaut Matthias Maurer arrived at the Cape Canaveral spaceport shortly before his planned launch for the International Space Station.
Maurer and his three NASA colleagues Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron of "Crew-3" were brought by plane to the spaceport in the US state of Florida.
On Sunday at 2.21 a.m. local time (7.21 a.m. CET), Maurer, according to the plan, will be the twelfth German to fly into space with Elon Musk's "Crew Dragon" from the space company SpaceX.
But before that, SpaceX has to fix a problem.
There are currently leaks in the toilets.
During the SpaceX flight last month, a hose came loose during the three-day mission - urine apparently got into the vicinity of fans and under the floor of the spacecraft, William Gerstenmaier told reporters on Monday evening.
He is Vice President of SpaceX and previously worked for NASA.
Initially, SpaceX had not disclosed any details about the incident.
But now the company has expressed itself more openly.
Neither the crew nor the company initially noticed the problem.
The toilet problem only became apparent during the subsequent inspection.
As a permanent solution, the urine flushing hose has been welded into the capsule that Maurer is supposed to fly with. Nasa is not quite finished reviewing the last-minute correction. Astronaut Raja Chari, the spaceship's commander, said he had full confidence in the repairs. SpaceX quickly addressed the problem and deployed hundreds of employees to ensure the safety of the crew.
There are similar problems with a capsule that is currently docked with the ISS. There, less urine had collected under the floor slabs, said Gerstenmaier. This is because the crew at the time only spent one day in the capsule before arriving at the space station. The astronauts at the station discovered the urine problem when they examined the underbody space with an endoscope - a cable with a tiny camera at the end.
SpaceX is currently conducting tests on Earth to ensure that the urine in the space capsule has not caused corrosion, Gerstenmaier said. Any damage could endanger the astronauts on their return flight to Earth next month. The final tests should be completed later this week, he said. So far, it doesn't look like the urine could have damaged the spaceship. This suspicion was initially obvious because a potentially corrosive compound is added to urine in space in order to break down the odor-intensive ammonia.
The launch on Sunday will be SpaceX's fourth launch with NASA astronauts and the fifth overall passenger flight.
The US astronauts previously flew in Russian rockets until SpaceX took over this task last year.
Actually, Boeing's »Starliner« capsule is also supposed to bring astronauts to the ISS.
But the project is lagging behind schedule and is struggling with technical problems.
Another test flight without a crew has been postponed until next year due to defective valves.
On the ISS, Maurer will carry out numerous experiments over a period of around six months at an altitude of around 400 kilometers and will also complete an outdoor assignment.
The last examinations before the start have all gone very well so far, said NASA manager Bob Cabana.
joe / AP / dpa
