Rocket launches in Cuxhaven
Between 1933 and 1964, numerous rocket launches were carried out in the greater Cuxhaven area as part of various research series. The starting area in Cuxhaven is now part of the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park .
1930s and 1940s
In April 1933, Gerhard Zucker launched a mail rocket that was supposed to fly from Duhnen to Neuwerk . However, the missile crashed after a few meters. In addition to these amateur attempts with little success, various missile tests took place on the grounds of the Altenwalde naval acceptance bombardment site from 1937 onwards . First, Walter engines were tested there, such as those used in the Messerschmitt Me 163 , among others . Later a cruise missile BV 143 B made by Blohm & Voss , which looked similar to the Fi 103 (V1) and was intended for coastal defense and was to be used against ship targets, was also tested there. However, the attempts failed.
Towards the end of the Second World War , several test flights of the V1 under the direction of the SS took place from the Altenwalde firing range . In 1945, Kurt Debus was commissioned to replace test stand VII in Peenemünde with a launch pad for testing the A4 rocket (V2) near Cuxhaven. This project could not be completed because of the ongoing war events. However, this work provided a basis for " Operation Backfire ", the demonstration of three A4 missiles taking off in front of military representatives of the Allied forces in October 1945. For "Operation Backfire" a launch pad and two concrete bunkers were built along the route between Arensch and Sahlenburg , some remains of which still exist today. One of the launches and its preparation was documented in detail for an educational film for the British Army and is now part of an exhibition on the history of the A4 in the museum on the site of the former Army Research Center in Peenemünde .
1950s
The beginnings in Hespenbusch
In 1952, Karl Poggensee began developing and launching small solid rockets in Hespenbusch . In the same year he also founded a rocket science association, the "DAFRA", which was later renamed "Deutsche Raketengesellschaft" and " Hermann Oberth Society ". After a short time this company was building rockets with summit heights of a few kilometers, for whose launch the area available in Hespenbusch gradually became too small and a new launch area had to be found. On the advice of Cuxhaven City Council Geveke, who worked on the development of missile weapons during World War II, the Wadden area of Cuxhaven was chosen. This area was considered suitable not only because the rockets of "Operation Backfire" had already been launched here, but also because there was a clear line of fire to both north and west.
Continuation in Cuxhaven
The first rocket launches took place on August 24, 1957. Some oil spray rockets and some experimental rockets with peak heights of 4 kilometers were launched. Due to bad weather, the originally planned launch of a rocket by Ernst Mohr with a summit height of 20 kilometers was canceled. The launch site for these rockets was near the Arensch building yard. In contrast to "Operation Backfire", there was no fixed launch pad, but the control center was installed in a dilapidated Navy bunker from World War II .
On June 8, 1958, the first attempt to launch the rockets was made by Ernst Mohr. These missiles have since been improved to such an extent that they could reach summit heights of 50 kilometers. However, there were problems with flight stability and the missiles crashed. It was not until September 14, 1958 that the rockets were able to fly successfully.
On May 16, 1959, the first launch of a mail rocket took place . This rocket carried 5,000 postcards over a distance of three kilometers. The letters transported with this rocket received a special stamp and are now coveted collector's items among philatelists. With the post rocket launches, the funding of the rocket experiments was also supported.
On November 1, 1959, the cumulus was launched for the first time , but the transmitter failed. A summit height of 15 kilometers was reached.
1960s
On February 11 and 12, 1961, the launch of cumulus rockets with scientific experiments and radio tracking of the missiles succeeded for the first time. In May and June 1961, rockets were used to transport mail over a greater distance for the first time, to the islands of Neuwerk and Scharhörn . On September 16, 1961, two cumulus rockets were launched with biological subjects on board, namely the salamander Max and the goldfish Lotte. Lotte landed softly after a completed flight, while Max experienced a hard landing due to a parachute defect. The maiden flight of the high-altitude research rockets Cirrus I and II took place on the same day with summit heights of 35 and 50 kilometers respectively.
In 1961, the rocket designer Berthold Seliger , who in the same year founded a company for rocket construction with the "Berthold-Seliger-Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH", started launching his own rockets: at first it was only replicas of the cumulus rockets, so he started on November 19, 1962 for the first time three single-stage rockets with a length of 3.4 meters and a summit height of 40 kilometers, whose signals were received by the Bochum observatory , among others . These missiles were completely reusable and returned on a parachute after the flight was completed. On February 7, 1963 the maiden flight of Berthold Seliger's two-stage rocket took place. This rocket with a length of 6 meters reached a summit height of 80 kilometers. As with the single-stage predecessor models, their signals could be received by the Bochum observatory. Before this launch, one of its single-stage rockets was launched to examine the wind conditions in the high atmosphere. On May 2, 1963, Berthold Seliger launched his own three-stage rocket. This rocket, which was launched with a reduced propellant charge, reached a summit height of 110 kilometers.
To date, all rocket experiments carried out in Cuxhaven since 1957 have been of a purely civil nature - however, after these successes, the “Berthold Seliger Research and Development Company” began to develop military-grade rockets. On December 5, 1963, the "Berthold-Seliger-Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH" gave a flight demonstration of their products to representatives of the military from non-NATO countries. Although none of these missiles was a ready-to-use weapon and the missiles landed on parachutes after they had completed their flight, the maximum flight altitude of 30 kilometers for these missiles was specified under Allied law. Nevertheless, there were some diplomatic resentments, including with the Soviet Union, which feared that Germany would develop military missiles that would run counter to Allied regulations. These concerns could not be dismissed out of hand, since the rockets presented on December 5, 1963 had ranges of 160 kilometers when they were launched with a full propellant charge.
Despite these concerns, the rocket launches in the Cuxhaven Wadden area initially continued. On March 22, 1964, the Hermann Oberth Society launched ten supply rockets, some of which were supposed to land in gliding flight. On May 7, 1964, during a rocket demonstration by Gerhard Zucker on the Hasselkopf near Braunlage, there was a fatal accident during a post rocket launch because one of his rockets exploded shortly after the launch and debris fell into the crowd, which had been allowed too close to the launch pad. Although Gerhard Zucker did not cooperate with the Hermann-Oberth-Gesellschaft and the Berthold-Seliger-Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, all take-offs at altitudes of over 100 meters in the Cuxhaven wadden area were prohibited after this accident, whereby the aviation law and not - which would actually be much closer - based on the law on explosives.
Suspension of rocket tests
The cessation of the rocket tests in the Wadden area of Cuxhaven, which were carried out by the “ Berthold Seliger Research and Development Company”, the “ Hermann-Oberth-Gesellschaft mbH ” and some other experimenters, officially went back to the fatal accident on the Hasselkopf.
The Hermann-Oberth-Gesellschaft mbH had a good reputation with its insurance companies, as there had never been an accident on the flights it operated and the safety standards were very high.
The more likely reason for the cessation of the rocket tests in Cuxhaven is likely to be found in the flight demonstration to military representatives from non-NATO countries on December 5, 1963. Although the presented missiles were not equipped with warheads and did not violate Allied laws regarding the development of military missiles in Germany, they could easily be converted into military missiles that would violate Allied laws regarding the development of military missiles in Germany. Because of this, this flight demonstration was very controversial and there were some protests from the Soviet Union. Since no Allied law was directly violated by the rockets launched, the rocket tests in Cuxhaven, which were very popular with tourists because of the postal rocket launches that were also carried out, initially continued. However, they were watched with great suspicion, fearing that military missiles might be developed under the guise of postal and sounding rockets.
The arguments used to justify the ban on rocket tests in the Cuxhaven Wadden region in June 1964 show some inconsistencies; Although the accident in Braunlage was a typical explosion on the ground (the rocket was at an altitude of a few meters far below the controlled airspace), aviation law and not explosives law was used to justify the ban on rocket tests. In fact, this ban was not a general ban on rocket tests in the Wadden area of Cuxhaven. Rocket tests at altitudes of up to 100 meters were still permitted. However, such attempts were of no practical importance.
The crash of the sugar rocket was only the cause (if at all), but not the reason for the stricter regulation of rocket tests in the area of the Cuxhaven Wadden Sea. From the start of the rocket tests, it was clear that binding general regulations had to be drawn up for rocket airfields, which is why neither the Seligergesellschaft nor the German Rocket Society or Hermann Oberth Society were ever approved for general use of the area as a rocket airfield. All missile tests were individually approved.
Even with the approved tests, there were always conflicts of interest between the bodies involved. The Federal Minister of Transport, represented by the Bremen Waterways and Shipping Directorate (and partly in Hamburg), primarily saw a threat to large shipping on - depending on the starting angle - the Elbe, the roadstead near the lightship Weser or small shipping in the Priel "Oster Till"; the Hamburgers saw their exploration work for the deep water port at Neuwerk and the tanker handling at Neuwerk roadstead at risk. Therefore, the Federal Minister of Transport sought to relocate the launch site by around 10 km to the south, starting in the direction of Großer Knechtsand. The district president in Stade objected to this because this is an important bird sanctuary and it was only a few years ago that the English could be persuaded to give up their bomb tests for this reason. Therefore, it is out of the question to use the Großer Knechtsand itself as a target area for missiles. In addition, there was a litter building near the launch site, the residents of which could also be endangered by the tests.
The Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, on the other hand, was willing to support missile tests - provided that security was guaranteed - especially since a need for young engineers for industry and the armed forces was seen. Therefore, efforts were made there to work out appropriate guidelines with all of the above parties.
In June 1964 it was said that the rocket tests in the Cuxhaven Wadden area could be continued as soon as new security measures had been worked out, but this has not yet happened.
Another fact is that neither the Hermann Oberth Society nor the Seliger Research and Development Corporation was allowed to work on German contributions to ESA projects, even though both societies had extensive practical experience in the design and launch of rockets.
literature
- Harald Lutz: The forgotten rocket experiments from Cuxhaven. In: Stars and Space. 44 (3), 2005, ISSN 0039-1263 , pp. 40-45.
Web links
- History of the rocket experiments
- Timeline of the rocket tests in Cuxhaven in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
- The rocket tests from Cuxhaven
- Biography of Gerhard Zucker in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Technical Note No. 1170
- ↑ Blohm and Voss Bv 143 In: LuftArchiv.de, accessed on May 15, 2019
- ↑ 35th History of Astronautics Symposium In: nasa.gov, accessed May 15, 2019