Flight in the Federal Republic of Germany

When the European Research Ministers on November 9, 1987 determined on the "European Long TermSpace Plan 19872000" 1, they opted for a big technology only comparable to nuclear technology or large scale military technologies such as e.g. SDI. The new dimensions European space flight now is aiming at, can be characterized by different aspects: i) The financial resources required to build up the European space systems are immense. Official figures oftheGerman Research Ministry (BMFf) in 1987 ~ccounted for 14 billion DM, which is equivalent to about two fast breeders, but it could be demonstrated by recalculating the ESA figures that much more money would be required. My prediction of 1987 that at least 8 billion DM more would be required2 and that this would raise unsolvable problems for the research budget in the 1990s now has been confmned by German officials3, which arouses suspicions that the real problems might be even worse. ii) The technical systems of the ESA programme focus on manned space flight, which also indicates a new qualitiy in European space politics. The space station modules, named COLUMBUS, the mini shuttle HERMES, and the new rocket ARIANE V, mainly required to launch HERMES, all indicate that a large amount of resources within the long term prograrnme is directed towards manned space flight. Other projects such as planetary missions or scientific exploration of the earth will, according to official ESA plannings, slowly be reduced from 68.5% (1987) to 28.8% (1993) and then to 26.4% (2000) of the total ESA budget4 , and a continuing cost explosion of manned systems might even aceeierate this trend. Projects such as earth observation or astronomic missions are to be shifted to rnanned systems, but the community heavily criticizes this. The arguments are well-known: manned space flight is a hinderance not a promotion for research. 5