After six months on the International Space Station, the German astronaut Matthias Maurer started his return flight to Earth on Thursday.
As shown in a live stream from the US space agency NASA, he and three US astronauts undocked from the ISS in a Dragon capsule from the private space company SpaceX.
Maurer left for the ISS in November last year as an astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA).
Together with the NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron, who are now setting off to earth with him, Maurer researched in the areas of physics, biology, medicine and artificial intelligence and tested new technologies in the process.
At an altitude of 400 kilometers, he experimented with weightless water, new types of concrete mixtures for sustainable construction on earth and bio-plasters made from skin cells.
Looking back, Maurer described an exhausting field mission that he completed with his commander and NASA colleague Chari as one of the "most outstanding experiences".
For more than six hours, the two repaired the station's cooling system and replaced an outdoor camera.
Maurer was the 600th person and the twelfth German in space.
He also celebrated his 52nd birthday there in March.
During his mission, Maurer regularly shared videos or photos from the space station in online networks, with which he documented his experiments and everyday life as an astronaut.