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Astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide and Thomas Pesquet before their start from Cape Canaveral on April 23: Soon 200 days in space?
Photo: JOE SKIPPER / REUTERS
The return of the current crew of the International Space Station ISS has been postponed by a few hours to Monday evening (local time).
The landing capsule with the four astronauts on board is expected to hit the sea off Florida on Tuesday at 4:33 a.m. Central European time, as the US space agency NASA announced on Sunday.
The reason for the shift is therefore strong wind, which was predicted for the originally planned landing time.
According to NASA, the German astronaut Matthias Maurer and his colleagues from the next ISS crew will leave for the ISS on Wednesday (local time) at the earliest, so the space station will remain unoccupied after the departure of the current crew, unlike usual.
The returning crew includes the French Thomas Pesquet, the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide and the US spacemen Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur.
You have spent more than six months in space since April - it was exactly 196 days on Friday.
Since the "Crew Dragon", with which the "Crew-2" is currently at the ISS, can officially only stay in space for up to 210 days, the return of the four astronauts is becoming more urgent with each passing day.
The »Crew Dragon«, however, has a problem: the toilet is broken.
The four astronauts therefore each have to fly back to earth wearing a type of diaper.
That was, of course, "suboptimal," said astronaut McArthur.
"But there are a lot of small challenges in space travel and we're ready to get them under control."
German astronaut Maurer has to wait
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Astronaut Matthias Maurer: The twelfth German to travel into space
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
According to NASA, "Crew 3" around the German astronaut Maurer will take off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida at the earliest on Wednesday evening (local time).
In addition to the German ESA astronaut Maurer, the crew also includes NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron.
They are supposed to live and work on the ISS for six months.
For the 51-year-old bricklayer, it is the first mission in space.
After Alexander Gerst, the Saarlander is the second German in the European astronaut corps and the first German astronaut to fly to the ISS on board a commercial SpaceX space capsule.
Overall, he is the twelfth German to travel into space.
feb / dpa / AFP
