Dr. Matthias Maurer, born on March 18, 1970 in St. Wendel in Saarland, is an ESA astronaut and scientist. After earning his doctorate in materials science and gaining several years of professional experience as a product developer in the medical industry, he joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009 and was post-nominated to the astronaut class in 2015. In the course of his CosmicKiss mission, he became the 12th German to launch into space in 2021 to live and work on the International Space Station (ISS) for around 6 months.