Sigmund Jähn

• Salyut 6 EP-4   Soyuz 31/Sojus 29 (1978 )

Sigmund Werner Paul Jähn ( born February 13, 1937 in Dawn diamond ring, Vogtland ) is a former German astronaut, fighter pilot and Major General of the NVA of the GDR. He was the first German in space.

Career before the cosmonaut training

After primary school, Sigmund Jähn graduated from 1951 to 1954 a lesson to the book printer. After that, he was a pioneer director at the Central School in Hammersmith Bridge. On April 26, 1955 Jähn entered his military service at the time of VP- air, the precursor of the air forces of the GDR, in Dash. After his basic training he was trained as a student officer at the OHS the LSK / LV Kamenz and at the flying school in Bautzen, the forerunner of the later establishment OHS for military aviators in Bautzen in 1956 for pilots. In 1958 he returned to his squadron Jagdfliegergeschwader 8, according to Dash back. In 1960 he moved with his squadron to the final location Marxwalde. From 1961 to 1963 Jähn was deputy commander for political work of a squadron squadron. He then headed to 1965 in the field of air tactics squadron / air shooting. Subsequently, he was to study at the Military Academy of the Air Force, " J. A. Gagarin " delegated in Monino near Moscow. He completed his studies with a degree in military scientists. From 1970 to 1976 held Jähn the function of an inspector for fighter pilot training and flight safety when deputy head of LSK / LV for training the Air Force in command LSK / LV.

As part of the Intercosmos program ( Eberhard Köllner, Rolf Berger and Eberhard Golbs ) came Lieutenant Colonel Jähn and three other candidates from 1976 shortlisted for cosmonaut training. Jähn and Köllner were awarded the contract.

Flight into space

Preparation

Since 1976 Jähn was formed together with Eberhard Köllner as his substitute for a space flight as part of the Intercosmos program in Star City near Moscow. At the Institute of Aviation Medicine of the NVA in Koenigsbrueck the two potential cosmonauts were mostly prepared by the scientist Hans Haase medicine to space flight. Initially Jähn was not Bykowski, but Alexei Leonov allocated.

Stay at All

The graduate military scientists flew on 26 August 1978 in the Soviet Soyuz 31 together with Valery Fedorovich Bykowski to the Soviet space station Salyut 6 The flight lasted 7 days, 20 hours, 49 minutes and 4 seconds. During 125 orbits Jähn conducted numerous experiments. These included scientific and technical experiments with the multispectral camera MKF 6 for remote sensing, materials science experiments, experiments for crystallization, form breeding and recrystallization and growth of a monocrystal, medical experiments, studying the effects of weightlessness on the faculty of speech, occupational psychological examinations, review of the hearing sensitivity of the crew, biological experiments on cell growth in microgravity and on the connection of micro-organisms with the organic polymers and inorganic substances.

The dolls wedding brought by the Jähn DDR Sandman with the Soviet television doll Masha, the Valeri Bykowski had placed shown on television became known.

Soyuz 31 was a return capsule for the crew to Salyut 6 docked, the tailored seats were reloaded into the return capsule Soyuz 29.

An unexpectedly hard landing of the capsule resulted in Jähn cause permanent damage to the spine. Because of the relatively small commander switch to the detachment of the parachute delayed reached only with difficulty, the screen did not dissolve in time of the landing capsule, pushing it several times dragged on hitting through the steppe.

Reception

Jähns space flight was treated and extensively celebrated in the media of the GDR, but put the smaller German state the first German in space.

After his return Jähn received the awards Hero of the GDR and Hero of the Soviet Union. In the Grove of the cosmonauts before East Berlin Archenhold wait a bust was unveiled with its image. Also, schools, leisure centers, and a cargo ship of the type Neptune 421 received its name during his lifetime.

A year after his flight was set up an exhibition on space flight in his birthplace dawn diamond ring in the former railway station. In the years 1991/92, this exhibition has been greatly expanded since then and is called " German Aerospace Exhibition ". Since 2007, further extended the exhibition is housed in a new building near the old site.

A representation Jähns published in 2003 feature film Good Bye, Lenin became famous! In addition to playing the original recordings of the dolls wedding in space there embodies a Jähn very similar sighted taxi driver (played by Stefan Walz) in a fictional account of the current camera the supposedly 1990 Council of State of the GDR appointed Sigmund Jähn, which opens its borders to West Germany.

More career

After the successful space mission Soyuz 31 Jähn 1978 to colonel and deputy director of the Center for Cosmic Education in the command LSK / LV appointed. In 1979 he became head of this center and remained so until 1990. Jähn received his doctorate in 1983 at the Central Institute for Earth Physics in Potsdam in the field of remote sensing of the Earth. This was done under the guidance of his friend Karl Heinz Marek, who was remote sensing of the central institution at that time head of the. His doctoral thesis was based, inter alia, the common scientific reports of the flight. On 1 March 1986 Colonel Jähn was appointed major general. He was on 2 October 1990 in addition to Major General Lothar Engelhardt and Admiral Theodor Hoffmann to the last generals, who were released from the NVA. Since 1990 he has worked as a freelance consultant for the Astronaut Center of DLR and since 1993 also for the ESA ( European Space Agency) in the Russian cosmonaut training center.

Private life

Sigmund Jähn lives in Strausberg, is married and has two daughters.

Honors

Quotes

Sigmund Jähn via radio during his stay in space:

"Dear viewers of the German Democratic Republic. I am very happy to be attending the first German in this manned space flight. "

Sigmund Jähn the late 1990s for a radio station:

"Man is technically advanced. He can build space stations, they couple together in space and remember the landing on Mars, but its development seems to have stagnated since the Stone Age. "

Sigmund Jähn in an interview with Superillu 1998:

" The voice of the flight leader in the headphones sounded almost solemnly, Podjom - Rise ' It was first when it would thunder in the distance! . The muffled rumble came closer and closer quickly. The rocket began to vibrate, as she trembled, get away as quickly as possible from the crater of the volcano on which they sat. I did not see it, although from our capsule 50 feet above the ground, but witnesses later told me about this unique spectacle. It looked like a fire-breathing dragon, who let out a sea of ​​flames and smoke. Red, yellow, blue and violet rays which raged from the five engines. A fascinating sight. My pulse was elevated. But this palpitation was not afraid, rather stimulating. And what I saw next was total bliss: Our Earth, wrapped in bright blue. Simply fantastic. "

Sigmund Jähn the DLR lecture 2005:

Works

• Experience space. Military der DDR, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-327-00710-1.