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in the 1960 s. the united states and the soviet union were in boiled in a race into space. it was a contest involving huge amounts of material and personnel. nasa alone employed thousands of people with the goal of putting an american on the moon. but it wasn't just the americans and the russians who were reaching for the stars a small company from got consisting of half a dozen engineers wanted to go toe to toe with the superpowers. the premise of our premise was not to go high tech but to go low cost cost. look good to get us launched hognose the 1st ever. private space at our own

problems from the. chapel hill n.c. i heard they were going to launch a rocket in order to let the launch site would be somewhere in africa and that's when they came up with zaire. almost ahmad's we looked at the map as well as a year in iraq no. because of the script that's rough it till i had this feeling that going to the jungle was somehow like opening the door to some a fantasy world after the bush like all. the idea of doing it is a year geographically made sense as a trend out diplomatically there was a disaster. she wasn't sure if you want to start a technically high risk enterprise what do you do if you stick you go to a venture capitalist just might an angel investor. a bad idea you'll go to

synagogue in valley look over to business your business partners name is mobutu sir . and something is wrong. it's a crazy story. there was also a car that the program or truck was personification over the ideas of what's kaiser . do you think the stablish one thought it was the road. through it was kaiser kaiser was the last. i never saw him there again. the string of it all started when i read these books that vanna from pound had written a forlorn usually. as

a schoolboy i wrote a letter to vanna. asking him what he thought i should become a real an astronaut or a rocket engineer was already replied was also you want to talk about heavy to be an astronaut and that we need light people in this rig and so i took the easy route and anyway the probability of becoming an astronaut is very remote. they can trick i live in a tiny spot of land in the middle of the pacific ocean between hawaii and papua new guinea. with his rocket venture behind him this secluded spot is where loot still kaiser ended up with his wife susanna the man who spent much of his career reaching for the stars is now spending his old age like a robinson crusoe only a few centimeters above sea level is night began on almost exactly the opposite side of the globe british law i was born in stuttgart and was 6 years old at the

end of the war when as well as kids we used to enjoy running around and around collecting old ammunition which will crack open the door and then sprinkle the black powder that was inside in stripes onto the ground which we then set on fire so. that it was very dangerous and our parents were unaware of our antics well that's how it was after the war we collected bomb fragments and i mean a short while that's what we played with there were no other toys obstinate. when i was still at school i founded and led a group of students like that for british that's how i came to study aerospace engineering in the group home. in post-war germany let's kaiser was a pioneer almost all the former german space experts had long since left to work for the russians the americans. as well as the self would it was a very exciting time. because it was officially from britain by the occupation

statute to produce supersonic from so close. they quickly found partners in crime guns i don't know truman said to me in 1965 i arrived at the technical university in st got you know lots kaiser he he had founded the a.g.r. are a working group in rocketry and space quite at the university of st started short got there. in the early years the rocket crazy students had to mainly improvise. their 1st experiments took place here. a spot i think for i looked up going there was an old bunker the needed some stared which a group of us built correctly 9 quickly we put in the fuel tanks the pipes and measuring instruments that i took and that's where we tested a small liquid propellant rocket engineers who said cats are cute and prefect a good test that.

the more i didn't get big fish this was on the outskirts of the district court suburb but country off to a toy understandable today it was right i residential area but we spent all our free time tables for free and a profit. let's kinds it was adept at negotiating with the american military also richie's they issued him a special permit for his officially for britain missile tests as a result of his group was among the 1st to succeed in building a functioning rocket engine off the. off. of new york also mr cars are you and your colleagues other van a form of morals and we want to try and learn from the. modern problems that are

inherent in rocket technology in space research. is have a journal they did with your space life what did they do that was in the eldar as it was called back then the europeans work together to build their own rockets and it didn't work they exploded or whatever is an expert the year that there was no space flight test cap was kind. of the takeoff of a european rocket 2 years ago in australia with the launch vehicle built by britain france and germany was a failure and for. then economy minister posed the question. over snitched where there wasn't a much cheaper method of going into space. be harder more uncertainties or stewardship of alban as a group of students we applied for this research weren't and were subsequently given a development contract worth 3 and a half 1000000 german marks of talk to. the students proposal was

radically simple. namely he didn't do it at all i know of course and you see we bundled together a large number of small rocket engines which could be produced very cheaply by serial production. by using such existing mass produced parts the production costs would be reduced still further. well joy and so we built injections that had a volkswagen the winch of life right motors it's electric drive i in that earned us the reputation to a how to they fly rockets with windshield wiper motor r.c. freaking arc but they were only used as a driving mechanism opening the valves closing the valves opening halfway closing exactly what a windshield wiper motor does perfectly the us was in shock and that was our philosophy not high tech but low cost and just one scofield sophie type take some of the low cost. in addition to the half dozen engineers in the project qualified technicians will say recruited wilson 1st almost 2 years we drive up the highway.

with one of the engines in the trunk of the car so. it was put on the test bench there and then it was tested it tasted. good economical and inventive the rockets made in sway the air was taking shape. it would just mean it's just the swabian said any been able to make cars centrifuge races. the test facilities at one place house in the hyatt on the beam testing the rocket engine 6963. gene. we carried out about 2000 combustion tests with this low cost and any decent effect push to fuel this older than low choice it took us 2 years to realize that if instead of a liquid in general and liquid hydrogen switched off we use nitric acid which has

such a high density board he could put a lot more few of you into the ride so if you know another kid to do the bring the country. that's kind of their interest group cannot be any people doing tests and none cards housing and rocket outs from pool i think you're up for everything to be tried out here. kindness engines began to arouse interest among the competition. the shift for we already had a cooperation with another aerospace enterprise in france and they were always curious about what we were doing here is here good as they were concerned that it might be used to compete with the ariane program as congo and skegness on. the lead story. in nearly 970 s. the german government decided to join the european space agency isa went on swapped

it on me to could tie it all up for song and then we were notified by your research is all well and good and so you know we can no longer finance or we also don't want to finance a further kind got speeches and that was the end of our and democrats who. love our. place. and us hearts and that meant to think it's free and fair either you file away years of work and say ok it's over i'm sorry but we didn't want to do that and it looks kaiser certainly didn't lose kaiser from garmisch. news. as shocked as all been as he said so if we can't get any subsidies will do privately gridlocked with and we found a public limited company i know authorize a shaft or truck. to appear as credible as

possible to potential donors kinds or try to win over the man who had helped to get the americans to the moon. was to become chairman of the supervisory board when he became so ill with kidney disease he said dr davis could do it just as well as mr ker davis who would work reform brown at peter one day and later on live for us army and the nasa had been the director of the carrier space center and he was an old rocket man. the deepest great cover up to date b.s. where's the tie kaiser carries the model of the rocket mr davis with lots of experience from the moon landing program for months on the program and as to cause or to give the presentation isn't your course set up as a right of company took in more than $160000000.00 mox within a year kind says rock it became an investment object for the wealthy ending it the nickname dentists' rocket. sized bins you see made this meant that if you invested

1000000 you could write off 2600000 us losses for tax purposes that's for you stood up striving. good with the same single components the same tank modules the same engine modules we can build small medium and very large rockets and fulfill all specifications to neutralize that time we had fully developed our technology and eventually tested everything the next the next stage was flight testing which we couldn't do in germany for insurance reasons as the population density is too hot horses to. the needy founded finally found alone scientists one of the most bizarre chapters in space history. in myanmar and same feeling sick sick capas 1974 was the year of the historic boxing is known as the rumble in the jungle between muhammad ali and george foreman

and george forman cats i know there may not that one of the people who organized this fight was a european york which whether he thought an internationally active businessman we met by chance on the airplane flights and i think they take inventory started talking what do you do i organized boxing fights among other things what do you do with focus going forward we build rockets but we don't have a launch site of our country and he said what about so you're interested in that so you're with. the central african state of today's democratic republic of congo it gained independence from belgium in 1960. s. political leader mobutu sese seko who came to power in 1960 finally had a weakness for german technology. good for good movie set

for who would take a plane and fly around and see if you can find something suitable for a large sum fandom i want a 101st observation satellites most of valence of my going to see. it will often come down to. the press t.v. value of having a space launch site in africa in his own country and the 1st one to launch satellites from africa would be attractive in a long range and assuring 0 money probably talked loudest to it it. was extremely corrupt. book but he was supported at the time by the french the americans held his own john and generally by the europeans. because neighboring angola was supported by and also impact country missiles to be part of the sure vith rock song for one bush the contract provided for under limited use of 100000 square kilometers of territory similar to the area of the former

g.d.r. which had 104000 square kilometers have you had to look for towson corporate committee as this was a huge area which we could hardly manage with our 304050 employees. the contract signed in 1975 was no new terminable until 2020. 2 is located in the south as between angola and tanzania it was spotty populated but there were regular scam machine is if the borders between the enemy states the and the real harm done i knew. we found a high plateau in the middle of these 100000 square kilometer just for. the outflow it was the river next to a dense jungle and kind of that was the highlands where the climate similar to switzerland's. was. more time group of chainsaw growth down

from the helicopter and quickly cleared the 20 to 30 meter diameter area of the helicopter to learn about the plots to cut back on and bit by bit weaker. the plateau will not hold off it will balk at mock. the week. in order to build the infrastructure in the middle of the jungle or truck teamed up with a civil engineer with a lot of experience in africa victim to. his company's staving had already realized numerous projects since i. have the odd fox for speed i thought they were all we had was the 1st thing is the mark they were 78 people it was someone really the end of the world when no one's ever seen before and that's where they went i looked at them until they're not exactly who sprinkle with time you learn a lot through experience you know. and i thought what on earth is this look doing

in the bush it's just this was one of the bush. victims of a man succeeded in building a full kilometer long runway through the rough terrain on the plateau and soon afterwards that runway would be listed on international flight charts on to the name louvel at port. for the move from gemini to zaire boots to akron often and subsequently founded it 7 and a line under the congolese flag. and by boat from from the british air force we painted them fire engine red so we could find them in the bar showed.

her how i well i'm cautious so we set up a big open temple where the team assembled the rockets and says i'm good by. i described it was basically a balloon in light of the attempt to imitate it or we called the tanks the by their embassy. was. initially the 40 strong team setting tents for the 1st few months while the village was built using local materials. the showcase of the complex was the restaurants with a total of 80 seats thanks. i am now got one and a half years after the start of the work and we were able to carry out our 1st trial run was we bought some scandal from local workers who we read to the rocket

or good old church. of rome and there was this amazing feeling of optimism and you couldn't help but think of the for this is going to succeed was just gets more fun . than. manned spaceflight was not what the track had in mind the aim was to don't satellites into space with its rockets. the 1st test took it to 6 metres no. tension was high as the team made the final indulge preparation as the a. way to swaddle that was may 17th 1977 a really exciting day for all of us which ones i live. i was a bit of a film and photo man i know lots i used to hassle blog the camera that the astronauts took with them to the movie. or in the middle of the staff all to cover

of course occurring actually i'm going to order order and then came the countdown to 0. from 10 to 0 of no. ah. i. keep it a 100 up into the blue sky as i hear there was a ton of play loud with attempts at this beat when top 10 kilometers easy a kilometer oh the successful 1st stop the coolest consternation elsewhere the

program was taken seriously. after these launch because they really have a rock it didn't help that one particular clip was taken with high speed film i saw that multiple times on american television. so i just familiar. ignition and liftoff but this is not cape canaveral or a soviet launch pad the playing of that trick or a film at the wrong speed gave you impression of a giant threatening rocket rather than a safe useful commercial rocket. that wary the americans and soviets during the cold war they were paying close attention to who was building rockets. that were frequent reports that the russians had launched to spy satellites to observe the old trunk site from about. however

the west is on the plateau when i was aware of this. we were pretty off the beaten track and unaware of what was going on elsewhere there wasn't much wrong with the world up there for the law each detail of the conflict the. top of them said well what's the mom like i used to make my own sausages like i'm emotional fries and white drop words roll sausage. and also me to find salami column sausage from ice they were very popular. talk all. my trust in the shop said good on getting the ball i was more of a wall street i also made a kind of blood sausage and a liver sausage will be and that was also my restaurant and be on the out of my

mind i'm. going to be off when. i see it will be a while so tried making a game salami with annele and wild boar. there was a lot of wild boars of feet. from each was for me it was pure adventure. a real adventure. of obama be there for 2 or 3 days then he fly away again be on the road for a week and then come back i'm. 43 years old one of the most colorful figures in the international space industry among other things i'm going to lose the main shareholder i'm chairman of the supervisory board of traffic i think the aim of this company is to transport satellites into orbit pay you know respect evolve who wants the satellites launched vehicle for what purpose that they need who is also in it wasn't just mobutu kaiser said he would large spy satellites

for anybody and that was a serious concern to both the u.s. and soviet military progress they knew about each other's progress they did not like the idea of other countries having the same pictures as they were getting because there were things that they are. couldn't hide from each other but they wanted to hide from the rest of the world. the french government as well wanted the rocket program shut down they were the primary contributors for the area and commercial our system so anything that would distract from their business was something that the french through very eager to to strangle. her. first produce really underestimated the political importance of since.

i. was schiff a former chief correspondent for the new york times. how to publish an article in the girlie magazines penthouse claiming that the germans were testing secret cruise missiles on behalf of the german armed sources inside your mouth cocked up with a script when this via insight you have attested this is the magazine that published his story in. and you know there's a 2 page spread of a painting allegedly showing a cruise missile flying over in fact a draft. with cute about it is they put all the right symbols on their pleasant nice iron cross on the wrong confusing notches. or that was absolutely fictitious.

extolled there. they were scientists as real as the giraffe seen the picture. this was imagine or but it was imaginary in a very deliberate purpose and did a lot of damage and in fact killed a lot of people. in central africa the cold war was heating up rebel forces operating out of socialist angola across the border and to the city of cholesky the . base served as a pretext for the attack. come again did it suddenly given the scarcely considered military kind of track and given that drag booker prize part of the territory of the year it follows that the drug is an enemy that must be removed. at b.b.c.

journalist in full no charge in the end to rebel attacks on the. well not to be shown of course you get scared if you think you're going to get murdered. a muppet fit. me. that in order that they want to tell on the people up there i said this is crazy 1st of all we're not military experts you see if it was good and it's more dangerous for us than for anyone who's threatening us here. we needed people to take charge of security. up i mean it was when i arrived on the plateau my 1st impression was things weren't very serious cuts i mean for former legionnaire starting a missile base. that's not very serious. legionnaires

began training local people as security troops. but with all of the uniforms in germany and online you. we equipped them with used clothing made them look like soldiers which they were mostly but the. destroy it was just. as simple as that simply because. there wasn't much behind it really. who had received much international criticism for the rocket pedo xanga visiting gene 1978.

oh my god we have announced a launch and somehow the governor of new omaha she found out about how to do one of all he told my bluetooth that we were planning a takeoff on a saturday to intervene and suddenly there he was one morning landing in his how kelly's on i am feeling throughputs. before 2 o'clock designed mobutu not only brought his extended family is something he brought his entire government team with him in for the defense minister interior minister when i needed a large number of journalists from all over the world. something . so big there's so many. good use easy to say well he's got

all just. part of the sit atop some pleasure in the ball some but they've always been given a very simple system of the. the film you're coming for you all the physic good for you sir just. left me there when the phone call the both of you value the killer so you're still such a. young person so much as the famous come soon. get set and i say. all right i'll save it 6. but i. know

it. eh i. rather think. that if. off all the thoughts on and. off. the locus of this was an important test launch of the part this and the fact that it failed in the presence of mobutu encourage the french soviets americans and possibly also the germans to convince mobutu to stop the project you know arguing that it would only damage his reputation to talk.

my. voter was supposed to want us and mr gore titian's i have received weapons assistance and financial aid in return to come and he told us you can stay in the country but no more rocket launches what kind of arc starts. this another drama was about to engulf track in the summer of 1979. you do both of those will the general idea was that from time to time we do something together for a day or so a trip into the bush or whatever some trust. because you're torn clothing came up with the idea of flying a boat to

a lake about 80 kilometers away and going down the river you're going to fall into that was 3 weeks before we left your home before was sort of set. in front of us we decided which dishy i was on the air that are really nice and we thought part of all we've always had like down the river just floating along with mr nice and relaxation and so i'm going to him in the fall into the fight. as well it was a big thing for about 8 people i was with someone of the couple of and those that didn't stay and i was young their lives of course i went off. on the you can see below you know. everyone was in good spirits to us or the how the river was while there were some fairly big waves which we hadn't seen from the

player from. we all left the waves crashed over the side and soon this woman started shaking and took on a lot of water but it was hard to hear the bus was. born since why should it descend on the model and then 2 of the team met us on motorbikes. we planned to meet a lot alex after one of them said he didn't feel like riding back again to exhaust so i said i'd take the bike back for a week or 2. towards evening some guys arrived and said found about boat. that was officer.

of the. year everyone we had the old truck helicopter and one from the zaire anomaly it was. sort of blue the we searched everywhere and were able to fly low above the river because they were hardly any trees with the visibility was good and we had binoculars but the river had so many different channels that's what made it very complicated was that if we couldn't recover all of them the puppy to slip through we're going to see. a good political year to recover the bodies the result the raphael gianni and no

one helped us we had to take on the risk on our own. they were lying there in the water bodies all black and it feel horrible. to think about it thought of something. graph. we want to i mean we were actually a pretty tight knit group before those were all friends who died there not just work colleagues but real friends or in the. industry then. they all died and i was the sole survivor that's still something i can't understand it's a little as well. ok it was the boat but why. sometimes you need

a little luck in life. i think in the news different the only one they didn't manage to find was my husband too many of us never heard anything about him again he was simply gone from . the public prosecutor's office in sharp contrast to investigators but they gave up relatively quickly. defied the suspicion that some secret service was behind it was wanted and couldn't be disproven if that but it can't be proven either reason will . as

he's think it's hard to feel i think that kind of broke the back of the old truck company. give you think having these 7 technicians died there suddenly the delphi model get comments and. just as the repetition caught up in the powerful currents of the new who are so did get caught up in the machinery of world politics and ultimately fell by the wayside . we need people like writers are to keep pushing the envelope and pushing the technology beyond words even a rare show only plausible because we have to find out where that boundary us.

and during a part of flight or drive for all the consequences of the other inadvertent consequences are sometimes fatal consequences to people or off our. space technology is by nature of a life threatening technology it is so difficult to build a rocket to get into orbit with any useful payload you have to cut corners everywhere you care but knowing where you can and can't predict corners remains a question for human judgment and human folly. heaven only knows where the kaiser's were kids would ever have been seriously competitive was forced to bend to political pressure before it really got stuck to its. ultimate she the cooperation with the controversial despot in the bush 2 and the competition's she is a viable german rocket led to the early end of the enterprise. kaiser's film

at empire shrank to the size of a pacific island and he himself remained convinced of the feasibility of his rockets he continued to risk. to wait and research the thing that people would one day appreciate his invention told us it was. fine this is one of the original rocket tanks from our flight test program you know we developed these modules. which could be assembled from individual parts. neo like a lego into the real thing the entire rocket can be assembled by 3 technicians on the board real. he was never destined to see whether his dream would become a reality. let's kaiser died on his island shortly after the end of the shooting for this film.

ico africa. they have a bad reputation but they play a key role in the ecosystem. which is a very much important in the environment we call them nature's and on to come many species are endangered a project in kenya seeks to protect the unloved scavengers that means above all talking to local people eco africa. and 30 minutes on d w. i'm

scared that the volume or not hard and in the end is a me you are not allowed to stay here anymore we will send you back. are you familiar with this. with the smugglers what alliances. what's your story. ready ready and what numbers of women especially of victims of violence comes in its. part and send us your story we are trying always to understand this new culture. another visitor another guest you want to become a citizen. in for migrants your platform for reliable information.

this is d.w. news live from berlin seeking common ground at a make or break summits european leaders meet in brussels to negotiate a 750000000000 euro package to help economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic but divisions are running deep also coming up. signs of discontent in merge from iran as demonstrators in this city of. protest the government's handling of the economy.