Interkosmos

Intercosmos was a scientific program of the Soviet Union to the involvement of non - Soviet technology in the Soviet space program. In order to implement a same association for the peaceful exploration of space was in the former Eastern Bloc soon after the launch of the first Sputnik established with international agents of space. As part of the Intercosmos program for the first time astronauts from other nations were allowed to take part in space flights. Then similar programs with other countries ( France, India, Syria, Afghanistan) have been agreed on the basis of the experiences of the Intercosmos cooperation.

The "Agreement on the participation in the exploration and use of outer space with the help of artificial earth satellites for peaceful purposes " in 1967 concluded between the Governments of the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries and existed until 1990.

Similarly, the international Committee on Space Research ( COSPAR ) Intercosmos promoted the astronomy earth satellites, sounding balloons, sounding rockets and space probes. However, the cooperation did not own an international institution such as the European Space Agency ( ESA), which has a separate budget from the contributions of the participating States.

• 2.1 Space Technical developments in the GDR
• 2.2 Remote sensing, laser physics and medicine

Each state is a separate budget

In Intercosmos each side to bear all costs incurred in own area costs. The Soviet Union provided especially the rocket and the Soyuz spaceships available and requested by the other Eastern Bloc countries to develop and deploy their own equipment, measuring instruments and equipment for use on the Russian carrier technology.

The activities of the ten Member States led to numerous joint projects of space exploration, including the extensive program of Cosmos satellites between about 1965 and 1990 and an intensive exchange of the participating scientists and organizations. The Intercosmos congresses were held with intervening special meetings in one-to two -year cycle.

Inter cosmonauts

With the visit of the Czechoslovak cosmonaut Vladimír Remek Inter in 1978 as the first non-Soviet and non-US astronaut the possibilities of the Salyut 6 space station were extended. On the one hand were effective propaganda firsts socialist states are obtained (each first flight for the host country ), on the other hand, the scientific potential of these countries were opened up after the first unmanned satellite for the manned space flight. The rules of the Intercosmos organization were further developed. Both the sequence and the propagandistic aspect (eg public relations, badges ) of the missions was based on the experiences of the Apollo - Soyuz Test Project.

Core of relatively uniform Intercosmos missions were therefore follow the launch of talks with the respective party or heads of state and greetings to the home population. In addition, observations and recordings were (also with multispectral MKF 6) carried out in the home country of the guest, medical-biological studies and experiments with typical products. The guest visit was on about 7 days and 21.5 hours designed (with only a tolerance of ± 1 hour). The preparation of these missions do not need a lot of time, because military aviators were able to draw on the most educated in the Soviet Union (ie, linguistically proficient ).

German first space flight

On August 26, 1978, the third manned space flight of the Intercosmos program was launched with Soyuz 31 to the space station Salyut 6 cosmonauts were Valeri Bykowski and Vogtländer and NVA Colonel Sigmund Jähn. The debut of the Federal Republic of Germany took place five years later with Ulf Merbold aboard STS -9. The mission was scientifically very successful and some equipment "Made in GDR " good - especially the multispectral camera MKF 6th

However, to more flights with DDR pilots did not - that the Soviet Union would have required statutory money. After the turn Jähn worked for the German Aerospace Center (DLR ) and for the ESA. He worked as a successful mediator between Russian, German and ESA projects that prepared about incipient cooperation with the Mir space station and now also with the ISS.

Two flights to Bulgaria

The Intercosmos flight Soyuz 33 on which the Bulgarian cosmonaut Ivanov took part had to be terminated prematurely because the coupling to the Salyut 6 space station failed. The flight was nine years later rescheduled with Soyuz TM -5 and Ivanov substitute Alexandar Alexandrov Panaiotow.

Other areas of technology

Space Technical developments in the GDR

Many institutions of the GDR involved early in the first decade since Sputnik 1 with the use of space - especially in geosciences, astronomy and applications of the new techniques on individual fields:

• Applications in meteorology and Ionosphärenphysik
• Satellite geodesy and orbit determination using optical directional measurements
• Development of receivers in the ionospheric observatory cooling Born and the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Research in vibration Neustrelitz
• Weather satellite stations WES in cooling Born and Berlin -Adlershof
• Development of the SBG - satellite camera ( satellite observation device ) by the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena, which was also exported to other countries geodesics
• Participation in the program for the exploration Vertical solar radiation; eg Lyman-alpha photometer that flew on Intercosmos 2 and 4

Remote sensing, laser physics and medicine

As part of Intersputnik you participated

• The construction of special databases for remote sensing purposes
• The research program Intercosmos laser physics: Development and Kleinserienprodution a powerful nitrogen laser and a picosecond laser pulse - modular system with CW dye laser, pumped with modensynchronisiertem argon - ion laser
• To measuring devices such Scanningkorrelator, Lyot filters, devices for single-photon measurement,
• To laser applications: opto - acoustic spectrometer with CW lasers for gas analysis and printing industry
• To develop a Lasermikrofluorometers with picosecond resolution
• Of optical samples of Medicine ( Cancer Research ), and biology.