The war in Ukraine also left a lasting impression on Matthias Maurer. And that, although the German astronaut has only been back on earth since May 6th.

The German astronaut Matthias Maurer (52) was able to see the war in Ukraine from space.

«In the beginning, the country got completely dark at night, so all the lighting in the cities was reduced. Actually, only Kyiv was recognized, and the whole country around it was completely dark black, »said Maurer on Tuesday in the ARD «Morgenmagazin». Then he saw lightning at night – and he knew: “There rockets hit.” During the day there were “huge columns of smoke, deep black columns of smoke” over cities like Mariupol.

“Well, that was very, very clear to the naked eye from space. And in those moments I actually felt much closer to the country than I would probably have felt from Germany, »said the Saarlander, who orbited the earth every 90 minutes during his mission on the International Space Station ISS. “And something like quarrels or wars, seen from above, seems a hundred times more irrational than now, even seen from the ground,” he said.

The astronaut from the European Space Agency ESA returned to earth on May 6 after almost six months.