Cosmic Kiss mission comes to an end after 175 days
German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer is back on Earth after spending 175 days on the International Space Station ISS. He ‘splashed down’ on 6 May 2022 at 00:43 local time (06:43 CEST) aboard the Dragon capsule ‘Endurance’ alongside NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn in the ocean off the coast of Florida. The crew members left the ISS at 07:20 CEST on 5 May and arrived on Earth after a 23.5-hour flight. On 11 November 2021, the 52-year-old materials scientist became the first German to launch to the ISS aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft operated by US company SpaceX. His first mission to the ISS, ‘Cosmic Kiss’, began on 12 November when he arrived at the Space Station.
The Saarland native conducted numerous experiments in microgravity at 28,000 kilometres per hour 400 kilometres above the Earth. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) was involved in the ‘Cosmic Kiss’ mission in numerous ways. The German Space Agency at DLR was responsible for selecting and coordinating the experiments and contributions from Germany. DLR scientists also conducted their own experiments. ESA’s Columbus Control Centre, based at the German Space Operations Center at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen, was responsible for the planning and implementation of the experiments that took place in the European Columbus module on the ISS. Matthias Maurer was the 600th human in space and spent a total of approximately 4100 hours on the ISS. He orbited Earth more than 2700 times and experienced more than 2700 sunrises and sunsets. Maurer conducted more than 100 experiments, 34 of them from Germany. Results from the mission will help to better understand terrestrial problems in biology, medicine and materials science, among others, and thus help to find solutions for them. As the most important European partner for the ISS, Germany is focusing on research for the future – and on peaceful international cooperation.
Links:
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Volker Schmid · Email Volker.Schmid@dlr.de
Happy homecoming. Thumbs up! German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer after exit-ing the Crew Dragon spacecraft ‘Endurance’ on board the SpaceX recovery ship. Maurer and his NASA crew colleagues – Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn – landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, on 6 May 2022. Image credit: NASA / Aubrey Gemignani
Time-lapse of the mission – What did German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer experience during Cosmic Kiss on the ISS?