It has something from "Back to the Future", this start of the German space driver Matthias Maurer. And that is definitely wanted. Because for decades of American astronauts on their way to their rocket into a converted camping bus-into a rounded, silvery glossy and always somewhat rickety-like vehicle, which they lovingly called Astro-van-waves bricklayer at night on 11.11. 2021 from the slowly closing wing doors of a Tesla.
He quickly forms a heart from his index fingers and thumb before the doors of his white Tesla close. A few moments ago, as TV images from the US space agency NASA show, he left the four-story building on the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center, where he has been preparing for his first space flight in recent hours. In less than three and a half hours, it should fly into space. Destination: the International Space Station ISS.
However, because Maurer's rocket and space capsule, which are ready for launch almost ten miles away, are operated by the private company SpaceX and not by NASA, Maurer now drives not with the rattling astro-van, but with an electric Tesla. And because Elon Musk, the boss of both SpaceX and Tesla, has a penchant for effective appearances, he donates his Model X– including gullwing doors - to his space-traveling company car. Just like the iconic vehicle from the science fiction comedy "Back to the Future".
First German to go aboard a SpaceX capsule
There is indeed a lot of the future to be felt on this November night in Florida. Musk has breathed new life into NASA and Maurer is the first German to experience it first-hand. In 2014, NASA decided to commission SpaceX and Boeing to build new spacecraft for human flights to the ISS to replace the mothballed space shuttles. The two companies had a largely free hand. They should develop, build and operate their capsules themselves. NASA only wanted to buy seats for its crews – almost like a charter plane. While Boeing's Starliner will not take off until mid-2022 with people on board until mid-2022 at the earliest due to major technical problems, SpaceX's Dragon capsule is now scheduled for its third regular flight, the second by a European, the first by a German.
Maurer's Tesla license plate: "S3ND IT" (send it, in English for example: send it off) – is meanwhile rushing past the huge Vehicle Assembly Building, VAB for short. It is one of the many iconic buildings from the era of ancient space travel that can be found everywhere in Cape Canaveral. In the VAB, one of the largest buildings in the world by volume, America's Saturn V rockets were once bolted together for the flights to the Moon, and later the space shuttles. Now the next US moon rocket, the Space Launch System, is being made ready for launch behind the high doors. It is scheduled to take off for the first time in February, still without people on board.
A flight to the moon is also the big dream for Matthias Maurer, he leaves no doubt about that in his interviews before the start. Especially since the 51-year-old was responsible for building a moon laboratory at the European space organization ESA before his astronaut career. But if you want to go to the earth's drabant, you first have to prove yourself in the earth orbit. For Maurer, the doctorate in materials scientists, this means: six months on board the ISS, 100 to 150 scientific experiments, including 36 attempts with German participation. Also daily sport, PR activities, caretaker services. The full astronaut program, from outside use to cleaning the on -board toilet.
The Russian Soyuz capsule would be different in every way.
The column has long since left the VAB behind. In the Tesla, the Toten Hosen are singing "days like this" from the speakers, but also Sido and Rammstein. At least that's how Maurer had determined it before. If he, like almost all of his ESA colleagues over the past decade, were to launch to the ISS with a Russian Soyuz capsule, he would now be on a tour bus. According to tradition, he would have left his quarters under the same sounds of a Russian hit song. He would have stood firm in front of the political decision-makers. According to the legend, he would have peed on the back tire of the coach – out of respect for the Soviet high-flyer Yuri Gagarin, who allegedly had such a need before his first flight into space.
Rituals are important in space travel. Not because the astronauts were superstitious, they act too rationally. Rather, rituals give support. They give the weeks, days and hours before the start when the tension inevitably increases. They offer variety. And this time these weeks before the start, in view of several delays, have dragged particularly long.
Since wild peeing is not welcome in Florida, the space travel of the future needs other traditions. Still in Cologne, at the astronaut center, Maurer has therefore planted a sapling, an American amber tree. In Houston, after training, he signed on the door of the TV studio, in Cape Canaveral on his soot-smeared, previously flown rocket. And he had his favorite food served the day before the start: Thai curry and fried noodles, spicy.
From this location, Apollo 11 has already launched.
The wing doors open. Maurer's Tesla column, as the television pictures show, has arrived at the starting ramp, the Launch Complex 39a. Apollo 11 took off from there, the legendary moon mission, as well as the first and the last spaces shuttle. Now there is a Falcon 9 of SpaceX, serial number B1067, crowned by a brand new Dragon spaceship. It's called "Endurance", in German: perseverance. For Maurer, who had failed in the last round in 2009 at the European Astronaut selection and was still selected six years later, there could be no more appropriate names.
Maurer has to lean far into the hollow cross if he wants to look up at the 63 -meter -long rocket.
SpaceX has tailored the crew white, slim, futuristic-looking spatial suits-Maurer no longer has to wear the orange from shuttle times, and no longer the shapely Russian variant, especially on the buttocks.
Laying your head together with a helmet is still quite difficult.
But no matter: A little bit of gymnastics is good, after all, the crew has to spend the next few hours squeezed in the Dragon capsule.
SpaceX has assigned the space on the far right to Matthias Maurer. Number 4, window seat. And the window is huge, especially compared to the peephole in the Soyuz. In addition to the German, three NASA astronauts have made themselves comfortable in the bucket seats. For two of them, Commander Raja Chari and Mission Specialist Kayla Barron, it is – as for Maurer – the first flight into space. Only pilot Thomas Marshburn was already on the road with Soyuz and Space Shuttle.
The SpaceX rocket takes off for the ISS entirely on its own.
Experience hardly plays a role anyway, at least in the Dragon, the "dragon". The capsule, that was one of the few requirements of the NASA on SpaceX, flies fully automatically to the ISS. The commander and pilot can wipe back and forth on the big touchscreens in front of them and see what is happening. The control is with the on -board computer. For Maurer, only the view remains out of the window. He would only have to be active if there are problems: with fire on board, with a start, when the start, with an emergency water. "However, I hope that I can stay a passenger at the start," he said half jokingly before his flight.
And so it happens. At exactly 9:03 p.m. local time, Thursday has long since dawned in Germany, the dragon comes to life. The Falcon 9 rumbles, it seems to spit fire and makes the ground tremble, causing the cameras to shake. Then everything happens very quickly: After 64 seconds, »Endurance« breaks the sound barrier, after almost 170 seconds the first rocket stage separates, after four minutes the spacecraft has already reached an altitude of 160 kilometers.
Twelve years after he failed in the ESA astronaut selection, but just 8 minutes and 57 seconds after the launch, Matthias Maurer's dream has come true: he is in space. A floating plastic turtle in the capsule indicates that gravity has lost its power. Just 90 minutes later, Maurer, the globetrotter who once went on a world tour for a year after completing his doctorate, will have circumnavigated the globe for the first time. Many circumnavigations of the world will follow. 16 per day. More than 2800 in the next six months.
Disclosure: The research at the Kennedy Space Center was made possible by an invitation from the German Aerospace Center, which has covered the costs for the return flight.
