So close to the stars: six months on the International Space Station
Only twelve Germans have ever left our planet: Matthias Maurer is one of them. But for scientists, the road to the stars is long and rocky. Although he beat thousands of competitors in the ESA selection process in 2009, there is initially no place for him in the astronaut class. But Maurer doesn't give up and years later he gets a second chance: ESA nominates him retrospectively for the European Astronaut Corps and in autumn 2021 he starts with the mission. And in autumn 2021 he will take off for the ISS on the Cosmic Kiss mission. For almost six months, he lives and works on board the International Space Station. 400 kilometres above home and only separated from the hostile vacuum of space by a thin shell, he learns what cohesion means - and how vulnerable our Earth is.
"And here it is, at last, my first free, almost poetically glimpse of this magically wonderful oasis in the midst of the darkest darkness of absolute nothingness. A realisation that startles me a little: the earth is a luminous and vibrant blue. The sky, on the other hand, is always black. Even during the day." Matthias Maurer
