After six months on the International Space Station, the German astronaut Matthias Maurer is scheduled to leave for Earth on Wednesday.
As the head of manned missions at the US space agency Nasa, Kathy Lueders, announced on Twitter on Sunday (local time), it is planned that Maurer and three other ISS crew members will undock from the space station on Wednesday at 11:05 p.m. CEST.
"We will continue to monitor the weather and adjust the return as necessary," added Lueders.
Maurer and his colleagues are to be brought back to Earth by a Dragon capsule from the private US space company SpaceX.
On November 11, Maurer was launched on behalf of the European Space Agency ESA on his first space mission called "Cosmic Kiss".
Together with the NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron, he researched in the areas of physics, biology, medicine and artificial intelligence and tested new technologies.
Around 400 kilometers above the earth, Maurer experimented with weightless water, innovative concrete mixtures for sustainable construction and bio-plasters made from skin cells.
He also completed a six-hour field assignment for repair and maintenance work on the ISS.
Maurer, who turned 52 in space in March, regularly shared videos or photos from the space station on online networks.
According to ESA, Maurer was the 600th human in space.
After Alexander Gerst, the Saarlander is the second German in the ESA astronaut corps.
Overall, he is the twelfth German in space.