Intercosmos
Interkosmos was a scientific program of the Soviet Union to incorporate non-Soviet technology into the Soviet space program. To implement this, an association of the same name was founded in the Eastern Bloc soon after the start of the first Sputnik in 1957 for the peaceful exploration of space using international space travel funds . As part of the Interkosmos program, space travelers from other nations were given the opportunity to take part in space flights for the first time . Based on the experiences of the Interkosmos cooperation, similar programs were then agreed with other countries (France, India, Syria, Afghanistan).
The "Agreement on participation in the exploration and use of space with the help of artificial earth satellites for peaceful purposes" was concluded in 1967 between the governments of the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries and lasted until 1990.
Similar to the international Committee on Space Research ( COSPAR ), Interkosmos promoted astronomy with earth satellites, balloon probes , sounding rockets and space probes . However, the cooperation did not have its own international institution such as the European Space Agency (ESA), which has its own budget from the contributions of the participating states.
Each state has its own budget
At Interkosmos, each side had to bear all costs incurred in their own area. The Soviet Union primarily provided rockets and Soyuz spaceships and demanded that the other states develop and provide their own devices, measuring instruments and systems for use on the Soviet launch vehicle.
The activities of the ten or so member states led to numerous joint space research projects , including the extensive program of the Kosmos satellites between around 1965 and 1990 and an intensive exchange between the participating scientists and organizations. The Interkosmos congresses took place every one to two years with special conferences in between.
There was a separate Interkosmos (KoKo) coordination committee , whose deputy chairman Heinz Kautzleben became in 1988, while at the same time taking over the chairmanship of the KoKo's scientific advisory board.
Intercosmonauts
With the visit of the Czechoslovak intercosmonaut Vladimír Remek in 1978, the first space traveler who did not come from the USA or the Soviet Union, the possibilities of the Salyut 6 space station were expanded. On the one hand, it was possible to achieve propagandistically effective first achievements by socialist states (first flight for the host country), on the other hand, after the first unmanned satellites, the scientific potential of these countries was also opened up for manned space flight. The rules of the Interkosmos organization were further developed. Both the process and the propaganda design (e.g. press work, badges) of the missions were based on the experiences of the Apollo Soyuz test project .
The core of the relatively uniform Interkosmos missions were therefore broadcasts of the start, talks with the respective party or state leaders and greetings to the home population. In addition, observations and recordings (also multispectral with the MKF 6 ) of the guest's home country, medical-biological examinations and experiments with products typical of the country were carried out. The guest visit was designed for approx. 7 days and 21.5 hours (with a tolerance of ± 1 hour). The preparation of these missions did not take a lot of time, since mostly military pilots trained in the Soviet Union (i.e. who knew the language) could be used.
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First German space flight
On August 26, 1978, the third manned space flight of the Interkosmos program started with Soyuz 31 to the Salyut 6 space station . The cosmonauts were Valery Bykowski and the Vogtlander and NVA Colonel Sigmund Jähn . The debut of the Federal Republic of Germany took place five years later with Ulf Merbold on board the STS-9 . The mission was scientifically very successful and some devices "made in GDR" proved their worth - especially the MKF 6 multispectral camera.
However, there were no further flights with GDR pilots - the Soviet Union would have demanded money for this in accordance with its statutes. After the fall of the Wall , Jähn worked for the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and for the ESA. In doing so, he acted as a successful mediator between Russian, German and ESA projects that were preparing , for example, the start-up cooperation with the Mir space station and now also with the ISS .
Two flights for Bulgaria
The Soyuz 33 intercosm flight , in which the Bulgarian cosmonaut Ivanov participated, had to be terminated prematurely because the docking with the Salyut 6 space station failed. The flight was made up nine years later with Soyuz TM-5 and Ivanov's substitute Alexandar Panaiotow Alexandrow .
Other areas of technology
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Space technology developments in the GDR
In the first decade since Sputnik 1 , many institutions in the GDR were already concerned with the use of space travel - especially in geosciences , astronomy and the application of the new technologies in individual fields:
- Reception and analysis of the measurement signals from satellites of the USA and the USSR
- Applications in ionospheric physics and meteorology
- Satellite geodesy and orbit determination with optical direction measurements
- Development of receivers in the ionospheric observatory in Kühlungsborn and in the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Vibration Research in Neustrelitz
- Weather satellite stations WES in Kühlungsborn and Berlin-Adlershof
- Development of the SBG satellite camera (satellite observation device ) by VEB Carl Zeiss Jena , which was also exported to geodesists in other countries
- Participation in the Vertical program for research into solar radiation; z. As with Lyman-alpha - photometers that flew on Intercosmos 2 and 4
Remote sensing, laser physics and medicine
Participation was made in the context of Intersputnik
- on the creation of special databases for remote sensing purposes
- in the research program Inter Cosmos laser physics: Development and Small-scale production of an efficient nitrogen laser and a picosecond laser pulse modular system with CW - dye laser pumped with modensynchronisiertem ion laser
- on measuring devices such as scanning correlator , Lyot filter , devices for single photon measurement,
- on laser applications: opto-acoustic spectrometers with CW lasers for gas analysis and the printing industry
- on the development of a laser microfluorometer with picosecond resolution
- on optical samples for medicine ( cancer research ) and biology.
Eponyms
The asteroid (2365) Interkosmos is named after the program.
Individual evidence
- ↑ AA Blagonrawow, LA Lebedew: "Height rockets of the USSR in space research", pp. 32–33; in: Raumfahrt für die Erde Space and Earth , Volume 1, anthology, transpressverlag, Berlin 1975.
- ^ Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Volume 1 in the Google Book Search
