Matthias Mau­r­er's mission on the International Space Station ISS

Cos­mic Kiss

German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn were launched to the International Space Station ISS on 11 November. Maurer will spend approximately six months on the Space Station during which he will carry out a range of experiments.

The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is involved in the mission in a number of ways. The German Space Agency at DLR is responsible for the selection and coordination of the experiments and Germany's contributions to the ISS. DLR researchers on Earth will also be carrying out experiments. ESA's Columbus Control Centre, located at the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) at DLR's Oberpfaffenhofen site, is responsible for planning and carrying out the experiments conducted in the European Columbus module of the ISS. From there, the data generated by the experiments are sent to the national user control centres such as the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) at DLR's Cologne site and forwarded to the researchers themselves.

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Gallery

Launch of SpaceX-Dragon with Crew-3
On 10 November 2021 at 21:03 local time (11 November 2021, 03:03 CET), German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Dragon space capsule.
Image: 1/50, Credit:

NASA/Joel Kowsky

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‘Cosmic Kiss’ – a declaration of love for space
Matthias Maurer was inspired by the Nebra Sky Disc, the oldest realistic depiction of our night sky, and the ‘Pioneer Plaques’ and ‘Voyager Golden Records’ for the design of his ‘Cosmic Kiss’ mission patch. The latter were data storage devices bearing knowledge about humankind that were sent out into the Universe on the US Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft. The mission patch features specific cosmic elements such as Earth, the Moon and the Pleiades star cluster, alongside Mars as a destination for exploration in the coming decade. The International Space Station (ISS) is shown in the shape of a heart, representing the human heartbeat between Earth and the Moon.
Image: 2/50, Credit:

ESA

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Happy homecoming
Thumbs up! - ESA astronaut Matthais Maurer after exiting the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance on board the SpaceX recovery ship. Maurer and his NASA crewmates Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, on 6 May 2022.
Image: 50/50, Credit:

NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

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Videos

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Video: DLR 'Cosmic Kiss' mission video
The DLR mission video shows German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer's preparations for his first space mission. The music is provided by German songwriter, musician and space enthusiast Peter Schilling.
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Video: SpaceX – Crew-3 Mission | Return
On 5 May at 07:20 CEST, Dragon and the Crew-3 astronauts autonomously undocked from the International Space Station ISS to return to Earth. After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon conducted multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison its trunk, and re-entered Earth's atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately 23.5 hours later on 6 May at 00:43 local time (06:43 CEST). Aboard the spacecraft Crew-3 astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer, who flew to the space station on Dragon when Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 03:03 CET on 11 November 2021.
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Background articles

The 'Cos­mic Kiss' mis­sion

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer lifted off from Kennedy Space Center (Florida, USA) to the International Space Station ISS on 11 November 2021 as a member of Crew-3. He is the first German and second European astronaut to fly to the ISS on board a Dragon spacecraft that is part of the NASA Commercial Crew Program.

In­for­ma­tion about the Cos­mic Kiss mis­sion

Facts and figures about German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer’s Cosmic Kiss mission to the International Space Station ISS

Mis­sion ex­per­i­ments

Matthias Maurer will carry out over 100 experiments on board the International Space Station ISS during his Cosmic Kiss mission – 36 of them with German involvement.

Next-gen­er­a­tion sci­en­tists – ac­tiv­i­ties and hands-on ex­per­i­ments for young re­searchers

DLR wants to get young people interested in space and promote the natural sciences and technology through numerous campaigns related to Matthias Maurer's Cosmic Kiss mission on the International Space Station ISS.

Matthias Mau­r­er

Matthias Maurer's space journey began in 2008 when he participated in ESA's selection process for European astronauts and passed all selection tests to make it through to the final 10. In 2010 he joined ESA, but not as a member of the astronaut corps, but initially as a crew support engineer and eurocom for the Columbus flight control team.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion ISS – Re­search in space ben­e­fit­ing hu­man­i­ty

The International Space Station ISS is humanity's largest outpost in space – an orbiting laboratory with excellent opportunities to conduct fundamental and applied research.

The Eu­ro­pean Colum­bus Lab­o­ra­to­ry

Columbus, Europe's contribution to the International Space Station ISS, is a multi-purpose laboratory for multi-disciplinary research under microgravity conditions. It was permanently attached to the ISS and put into operation on 11 February 2008. It is 6.9 metres long with a diameter of 4.5 metres.

Ger­man re­search ob­jec­tives and util­i­sa­tion of Colum­bus

In contrast to the early utilisation phase of the International Space Station ISS, the scope of research is set to be expanded significantly over the coming years. In addition to experiments in the field of gravitational biology, scientists from Germany are increasingly working on projects relating to radiation and astrobiology.

Eu­rope's link to the ISS

The Colum­bus Con­trol Cen­tre

The Columbus Control Centre (Col-CC) is part of the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) site in Oberpfaffenhofen.

Mission blog

DLR-Blog about Cosmic Kiss

Downloads

Brochure: Cosmic Kiss (2021)

3.2 MB | PDF

Links

Contact

Elke Heinemann

Digital Communications
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Corporate Communications
Linder Höhe, 51147 Cologne
Tel: +49 2203 601-1852

Michael Müller

Editor
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Corporate Communications
Linder Höhe, 51147 Cologne
Tel: +49 2203 601-3717

Volker Schmid

ISS Specialist Group Leader, Head of the Cosmic Kiss Mission
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
German Space Agency at DLR
Science and Exploration
Königswinterer Straße 522-524, 53227 Bonn