Matthias Maurer

Matthias Josef Maurer(born 18 March 1970) is a GermanESAastronaut andmaterials scientist,who was selected in 2015 to take part in space training.

Matthias Maurer
Official portrait, 2020
Born	(1970-03-18)18 March 1970 St. Wendel,Saarland,West Germany
Status	Active
Nationality	Germany
Occupations	Astronaut Materials scientist
Space career
ESAastronaut Crew Dragon Mission specialist
Time in space	176 days, 2 hours and 39 minutes
TotalEVAs	1
Total EVA time	6 hours, 54 minutes
Missions	SpaceX Crew-3(Expedition 66/67)
Mission insignia
Website	matthiasmaurer.esa.int

Biography

Maurer graduated fromGymnasium WendalinuminSankt Wendel,Saarland,in 1989.)He then began his compulsory civilian service as a paramedic with the Malteser Emergency Service. Afterwards he studied materials science and technology atSaarland Universityin Saarbrücken, Germany, the EEIGM (École européenne d'ingénieurs en génie des matériaux,"European School for Materials Technology", part of the Université de Lorraine) in Nancy, France, theUniversity of Leeds,UK, and at thePolytechnic University of Catalonia(Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) in Barcelona, Spain. From 1999 to 2004, Maurer completed his doctorate at the Institute of Materials Sciences of theRWTH Aachen University,Germany, where he received hisengineering doctorate(Dr.-Ing.). His dissertation titled "Lightweight composites made of aluminium foam with thermally sprayed coatings" won him several scientific prizes. After completing his doctorate, Maurer undertook a long-term trip around the world. In 2006, Maurer successfully completed an additional course of study in economics at theUniversity of Hagenwith aMBAmanagement degree.

Maurer holds several patents in the field of materials science and materials engineering. He is fluent in four languages (German,English,Spanish,French) and as part of his astronaut training, he is also taking intensive language training inRussianandChinese.

Astronaut career

Maurer applied to the European Space Agency as an astronaut in 2008 with almost 8500 other candidates and was one of ten to pass the selection procedure, but was not initially appointed to the European Astronaut Corps. In 2010 he started working for theEuropean Space Agencyas a crew support engineer andeurocomfor theColumbusflight control team at theEuropean Astronaut Centre(EAC) in Cologne, Germany. Before he formally joined theEuropean Astronaut Corpsin July 2015, Maurer took a lead role in ESA Astronaut Centre projects to prepare for future spaceflight and lunar operations with new international partners and extend the Agency's human exploration expertise beyond theInternational Space Station.

In 2014, he took part in theESA Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising Human Behaviour and Performance Skillsprogram and in 2016 he was part of theNASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations21 analog mission, an underwater training programme for future ISS crews in Floridaas well as the firstESA PANGAEAmission, a field geology and astrobiology training programme by theEuropean Space Agency.In March 2018, he gained certification to perform International Space Station-relatedspacewalksin the American spacesuitEMU.In 2018 he also graduated from both basic astronaut training and pre-assignment training and thus became fully certified to go to space.

On 12 May 2020 he arrived at theJohnson Space CenterinTexasalongside ESA astronautThomas Pesquetand Russian cosmonautsSergey Ryzhikov,Sergey Kud-Sverchkov,Oleg NovitskyandPyotr Dubrovfor training amidst theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Expedition 66/67

On 28 July 2020, Maurer was announced as a backup crew member forThomas PesquetonSpaceX Crew-2. On 14 December 2020, ESA announced a competition to name Maurer's mission; the winner would be announced in summer 2020 and will receive a signed mission patch flown to the ISS by Matthias. Prior to his mission assignment, Matthias was based at ESA’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany where he was project managing the development of a new ESA Moon simulation facility known as Luna.

Image taken during ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer's first spacewalk, EVA 80. He posted it to his social media on 5 April 2022.

On 14 December 2020, Maurer was officially assigned to theSpaceX Crew-3mission, which launched on 10 November 2021.A few hours before the announcement, Maurer revealed his second mission name asCosmic Kiss,after theNebra sky disk,the oldest known realistic illustration of the night sky. He traveled to the International Space Station alongsideNASAastronautsRaja Chari,who commanded theCrew Dragon,Thomas Marshburn,as the pilot, and mission specialistKayla Barron.Once on board the station, they joined Expedition 66. This mission made him the twelfthGerman astronautafterAlexander Gerstin 2018.

As part of Expedition 66, Maurer and Chari installed ammonia jumpers on the P1 Truss and repositioned a radiator beam valve module which had been giving them trouble returning the unit to operation. The astronauts routed cables, installed cable clamps on theBartolomeoplatform, tied back thermal insulation on theKiboExposed Facility Berthing Mechanism, replaced Camera 8 on the truss which has a bad filter and light, outfitted the radiator grapple bars for a future spacewalk, and also did other maintenance task outside the station. Because of time the task to break torque on the P4 electronics boxes was moved to a later spacewalk along with the truss cable routing.

Crew-3 landed in theGulf of Mexicoon 6 May 2022, after 176 days in space.For this expedition Maurer along with the other crewmembers were awarded theNASA Distinguished Public Service Medaland theSpace Exploration Medal.

External links

• Official website