The German astronaut Matthias Maurer has to wait a little longer for his first space flight: His start date for the ISS has been postponed again.
Kennedy Space Center – Anyone who flies to the International Space Station ISS has a very strict schedule: the rocket launch must be precise to the minute so that the capsule with the astronauts on board can overtake the space station in its orbit. But at the same time, spontaneous rescheduling of appointments is always possible. The German astronaut Matthias Maurer (51) is currently experiencing this firsthand. Some time ago, its start date for the ISS was brought forward from October 31st to October 30th – now it has been postponed again by a day. It is unclear whether this is due to technical problems or unfavorable weather forecasts.
On October 31st at 2.21 a.m. local time (7.21 a.m. CET), Maurer and his three NASA colleagues are supposed to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and dock at the ISS about 22 hours later. The US space agency Nasa names November 3rd at 1:10 a.m. local time (6:10 a.m. CET) as the backup start date. For Maurer, the NASA astronaut Raja Chari and the NASA astronaut Kayla Barron it is the first space flight, while NASA pilot Tom Marshburn has already traveled to the ISS and back on board a space shuttle and a Russian Soyuz capsule for a total of 161 days has spent in space.
Astronaut Matthias Maurer is flying to the ISS on a long-term mission
All four crew members are facing a long-term mission on board the ISS, there is no fixed end date for their return flight, it is currently only planned for around the end of April 2022. Matthias Maurer’s crew has been in quarantine since October 16, where they continue to prepare for the upcoming mission.
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