German Aerospace Center
The German Aerospace Center is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 35 locations throughout Germany. The DLR is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in national and international partnerships.
The DLR acts as the German space agency and is responsible for planning and implementing the German space programme on behalf of the German federal government. As a project management agency, DLR coordinates and answers the technical and organisational implementation of projects funded by a number of German federal ministries. As of 2020, the German Aerospace Center had a national budget of €1.348 billion.
Overview
DLR has approximately 10,000 employees at 30 locations in Germany. Institutes and facilities are spread over 13 sites, as well as offices in Brussels, Paris and Washington, D.C. DLR has a budget of €1 billion to cover its own research, development and operations. Approximately 49% of this sum comes from competitively allocated third-party funds. In addition to this, DLR administers around €860 million in German funds for the European Space Agency. In its capacity as project management agency, it manages €1.279 billion in research on behalf of German federal ministries. DLR is a full member of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems and a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.In the context of DLR's initiatives to promote young research talent, 16 DLR School Labs were set up at University of Augsburg, Brandenburg University of Technology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg, RWTH Aachen, Technical University of Dortmund, Technische Universität Dresden and in Berlin-Adlershof, Braunschweig, Bremen, Cologne-Porz, Göttingen, Jena, Lampoldshausen/Stuttgart, Neustrelitz, and Oberpfaffenhofen over the past years. In the DLR School Labs, pupils can become acquainted with the practical aspects of natural and engineering sciences by conducting interesting experiments.
The members of the DLR executive board are Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla since August 2015, Klaus Hamacher since April 2006, Karsten Lemmer since March 2017 and Walter Pelzer since 2021.
History
The modern DLR was created in 1997, but was the culmination of over half a dozen space, aerospace, and research institutes from across the 20th century.The oldest predecessor organization of DLR was established by Ludwig Prandtl in Göttingen in 1907. This Modellversuchsanstalt der Motorluftschiff-Studiengesellschaft later became the Aerodynamics Research Institute.
In the 1920s Max Valier, a student of rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth, co-founded the Verein für Raumschiffahrt, VfR, or "Association of Space-Flight", with Johannes Winkler and Willy Ley. In parallel he was acting in collaboration with Fritz von Opel as one of the heads of Opel RAK, a private venture leading to the first manned rocket cars and rocket planes which paved the way for the Nazi era V2 program and US and Soviet activities from 1950 onwards. The Opel RAK program and the spectacular public demonstrations of ground and air vehicles drew large crowds, as well as caused global public excitement, and had a large impact on later spaceflight pioneers.
The Great Depression put an end to the program and briefly after its break-up, Valier eventually was killed while experimenting as part of VfR activities in collaboration with Heylandt-Werke on liquid-fueled rockets in April 1930. He is considered the first fatality of the early space age. Valier's protégé Arthur Rudolph went on to develop an improved and safer version of Valier's engine. Valier and von Opel had engaged in a program that led directly to use of jet-assisted takeoff for heavily laden aircraft. Their experiments had also a tremendous influence on Alexander Lippisch, whose experience with the rocket-powered Ente eventually paved the way to the Messerschmitt Me-163, the first operational rocket fighter craft.
The private experiments of the late 1920s and early 1930s excited also the interest of the German military, which provided funding for further development of rockets as a replacement for artillery. This led to an array of military applications, among them Germany's V-2 terror weapon, the world's first ballistic missile, and also the first human-made object to surpass the Kármán line and thus leaving the Earth's atmosphere.
In the 1940s, the DVL funded Konrad Zuse's work on the Z3 and Z4 computers. Another German aviation technology research facility, the 1935-founded, top-secret Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt at Völkenrode which conducted research – much of it for military aviation to suit the Luftwaffe's needs – in parallel to the then-existing forerunners of the DLR of today, would not be discovered by the Allies until after the war's end.
In 1947, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Weltraumfahrt was formed, leading to the Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung being formed in 1948.
In 1954, the Research Institute of Jet Propulsion Physics was established at the Stuttgart airport.
What was later called the DLR was formed in 1969 as the Deutsche Forschungs- und Versuchsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt through the merger of several institutions. These were the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt, the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt, the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luftfahrt and the Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung.
In 1989, the DFVLR was renamed Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt. Also in 1989, the Deutsche Agentur für Raumfahrtangelegenheiten was created.
Following the merger with the Deutsche Agentur für Raumfahrtangelegenheiten on 1 October 1997, the name was changed to Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, literally "German Center for Aviation and Space Flight". The shorter translation "German Aerospace Center" is used in English-language publications.
Other German space organizations include the Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme, founded in 1970. This should not be confused with DLR's Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme located in Bremen. Also, significant contributions are made to the European Space Agency.
Research
DLR's mission comprises the exploration of the Earth and the Solar System, as well as research aimed at protecting the environment and developing environmentally compatible technologies, and at promoting mobility, communication and security. DLR's research portfolio, which covers the four focus areas Aeronautics, Space, Transportation and Energy, ranges from basic research to innovative applications. DLR operates large-scale research centres, both for the benefit of its own projects and as a service for its clients and partners from the worlds of business and science.The objective of DLR's aeronautics research is to strengthen the competitive advantage of the national and European aeronautical industry and aviation sector, and to meet political and social demands – for instance with regard to climate-friendly aviation. German space research activities range from experiments under conditions of weightlessness to the exploration of other planets and environmental monitoring from space. In addition to these activities, DLR performs tasks of public authority pertaining to the planning and implementation of the German space programme, in its capacity as the official space agency of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The DLR's Project Management Agency has also been entrusted with tasks of public authority pertaining to the administration of subsidies. In the field of energy research, DLR is working on highly efficient, low- power generation technologies based on gas turbines and fuel cells, on solar thermal power generation, and on the efficient use of heat, including cogeneration based on fossil and renewable energy sources. The topics covered by DLR's transportation research are maintaining mobility, protecting the environment and saving resources, and improving transportation safety.
In addition to the already existing projects Mars Express, global navigation satellite system Galileo, and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, the Institute of Space Systems was founded in Bremen in January 2007. In the future, 80 scientists and engineers will be doing research into topics such as space mission concepts, satellite development and propulsion technology.