What does Christmas look like on the ISS? In any case, there is a plastic tree. A gift sock for the astronauts too. Otherwise, Matthias Maurer is surprised.
Astronaut Matthias Maurer will also celebrate Christmas on the International Space Station. “We have a small tree that is made of plastic,” said Maurer at a live switch to a big party in his home town of Oberthal in Saarland.
“And we will hide gifts for our colleagues under this tree and then everyone will unpack them.” He thinks everyone has a sock into which the presents are put. “But I don’t know exactly, I’ll be surprised,” he said to several hundred people who had come to the celebration in the 4000-inhabitant community.
Oberthal had celebrated Maurer (51) on Sunday before the start into space. A “launch party” for the space flight that was last planned for Sunday was declared a “pre-launch party”. The launch from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida to the ISS had been postponed to Wednesday due to bad weather. A highlight of the party was the switch in the afternoon, in which the guests were allowed to ask the Saarlander questions.
Among other things, Maurer said that the physical demands on astronauts are no longer as great as they used to be. The launch with the rocket is “no longer such a heavy burden on the body. After ten minutes we’re in space and then I’m weightless for six months. It’s kind of an effort like lying in a water bed, you can do that. ” And, he told the audience, one of his great dreams was: “To fly to the moon and walk over the moon.”
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