On several occasions, he apologizes for his French a little hesitant, but nevertheless almost perfect. Since Monday, Matthias Maurer has been doing video interviews from NASA’s premises in Houston, where this astronaut from ESA (European Space Agency) trains. The 50-year-old German is on his cloud. In the fall of 2021, it will go much higher. He has just been designated for his first flight in space, six months. His destination will be the international space station where he should succeed his French friend Thomas Pesquet, who is leaving again in the spring and with whom he sometimes trains: “He was among the first to congratulate me. I’ll take advice from him for take-out food. “
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He will depart from Cape Canaveral (Florida) with two NASA astronauts in a Dragon capsule built by SpaceX. Elon Musk’s company has been shaking up the spatial landscape for a few months. “It will be like flying with an Ipad instead of a Commodore 64, my first computer. But working with private individuals is new. Everything goes very quickly, sometimes too much. It is essential for them not to share everything when we want to know all the details. But we learn from each other. “Cosmic Kiss is the name of her mission:” It’s a way of inviting people to fly with me. I intend to share my emotions with them. “In the meantime, he seeks above all to protect himself from the coronavirus:” Stopping the preparation could be fatal to my mission. “Limiting contacts as much as possible, he will therefore remain in Texas for the holidays, with the hope that his partner can join him.
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A family of minors
Matthias Maurer confides in realizing an adult dream rather than a child. With two minor grandparents, this Sarrois from Saint-Wendel, who has steelmaking friends, grew up in a modest environment where we used to probe the bowels of the earth rather than roll our eyes. “The first time I thought about this job was in 2008, when I saw an advertisement from Esa. “He is 38 years old and is an engineer in a private medical research company on blood filters:” I said to myself why not? I love science, high technology and international relations, after my journey which brought me to England, France, Spain, Korea or Argentina. And then there is the adventure… ”He joined Esa in 2010 before joining the corps of astronauts in 2015.
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Nancy EEIGM
Doctor in engineering of materials sciences since 2004, his studies made him pass by the European school of engineers in materials engineering (EEIGM) of Nancy in 1996. He is the first German there: “It was hard at early, because of the language. But we have formed a partnership and many students now come for an internship at Esa in Cologne. “He will also bring the school brochure to the ISS, as well as a Saar meal:” I also hope to be able to take a picture of Place Stan from up there. “
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