A German astronaut is exhibiting his love for Earth throughout a couple of additional days on the planet’s floor earlier than his first space mission.
Matthias Maurer, who’s ready with the remainder of Crew-3 workforce for a delayed trip to the International Space Station, has spent a part of his quarantine choosing up trash on the Florida seashore, inside vary of his SpaceX launch web site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. The mission, which can launch 4 astronauts to the station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket, will launch no earlier than Saturday (Nov. 6).
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“I’ve been relaxing during my quarantine by collecting rubbish on the beach 😳 ,” Maurer wrote on Twitter, exhibiting an image of himself holding a big trash bag.
I’ve been stress-free throughout my quarantine by accumulating garbage on the seashore 😳 Sadly, this isn’t the one bag I crammed. We actually need to consider our environmental impression on Earth and in space. Clean oceans, clear space! It’s as much as all of us. 🌍 pic.twitter.com/yELcONkolANovember 1, 2021
“Sadly, this is not the only bag I filled,” he continued. “We really need to think about our environmental impact on Earth and in space. Clean oceans, clean space! It’s up to all of us.”
The crew was delayed first by weather after which by an astronaut medical challenge, which NASA didn’t disclose intimately besides to say it was not COVID-19.
Maurer’s first space mission on behalf of the European Space Agency is appropriately referred to as “Cosmic Kiss”, which is supposed to declare how a lot he loves space — a love that clearly additionally extends to the planet Earth.
“It communicates the particular connection the Station supplies between Earth’s inhabitants and the cosmos,” Maurer mentioned of his mission identify in a 2020 ESA blog post. “It additionally conveys the worth of partnership in exploring farther to the Moon and Mars, alongside the necessity to respect, defend and protect the character of our house planet as we search a sustainable future on Earth.”
Maurer has been designated the 600th person in space and when he reaches orbit, he can be accompanied by three NASA astronauts: mission commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn and mission specialist Kayla Barron. With the exception of Marshburn, the opposite three astronauts are on their first spaceflights. Crew-3 is anticipated to spend about six months in orbit.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
