The thriller about the start of the German astronaut Matthias Maurer continues. Now he is no longer supposed to take off into space with his crew on the weekend, but on Monday at the earliest.
Cape Canaveral – The start of the German astronaut Matthias Maurer to the International Space Station ISS has been postponed again.
The 51-year-old Saarlander should start on Monday at the earliest (9:51 p.m. local time, 3:51 a.m. Tuesday CET) together with three NASA colleagues from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida, NASA said. A final decision should be made in the coming days. The “Saarbrücker Zeitung” had previously reported on the new start plans.
Other concerns besides the weather
There are several things to consider when planning for NASA: On the one hand, the weather conditions do not look good for a possible start on Saturday and Sunday (local time). Nasa said it was also not yet clear whether the weather could play along for a start on Monday. In addition, the “minor medical problem” will continue to be observed with a crew member because of whom the start had already been postponed. And third, there is a crew on the ISS that should actually be flying back to Earth soon. It still has to be decided whether the return of the “Crew-2” or the start of the “Crew-3” should have priority, said NASA.
“These are dynamic and complex decisions that can change every day,” said NASA manager Steve Stich. “The weather can be particularly challenging in November, so our goal is to go ahead with the highest likelihood of mission safety and crew protection.”
Originally scheduled to start on October 30th
The start had previously been postponed several times. It was last planned for Sunday morning (4.36 a.m. CET). Once, bad weather conditions were given as the reason for the postponement of the space flight. During the last postponement, one of the crew members reportedly had a “minor medical problem”. The rocket was originally scheduled to launch on October 30th.
With Maurer, a German astronaut will fly into space for the first time in three years. Together with NASA colleagues Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, he is to take off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida to the ISS space station. The four astronauts are to be transported by a “Crew Dragon” from Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX. dpa
