ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

East German Space Research in the 1980s

• In Event: Space, Science, and Imagined Futures

English Abstract

This paper looks at the changing aims of the East German space program during the 1980s. The country entered the decade with a swing of momentum. In the 1970s, the GDR had successfully produced optics equipment for the Soviet space program, and its cosmonaut, Sigmund Jähn, had flown on a Soviet space mission. But already by the start of the 1980s, troubles were on the horizon. A lack of funding at home brought challenges to growing space research, while economic problems in the USSR meant that the GDR had to pay hard currency (which it severely lacked) to continue its earlier Soviet partnerships. Despite this, space scientists tried to find ways to continue to work, for instance by commercializing their innovations and cooperating with new countries and with the United Nations.

The collapse of the country at the end of the decade brought about the end of their national funding but also surprisingly renewed opportunities for some former East German space researchers. Unlike many other examples from East Germany, the GDR’s space program was seen as valuable after German Reunification because of its connections with the Soviet space program. In the early 1990s, Germany continued the GDR’s space agreements with the USSR (and then Russia) and also continued earlier research. Most importantly, the reunified German space program tried to use these new Russian connections as a way to make Germany a bridge between the two space superpowers.

This paper speaks to how East German scientists, afraid of being left behind, found creative ways in the 1980s to participate in space research at a time of growing capabilities worldwide. Furthermore, it shows the value of space research and science in the 1990s, especially in terms of an imagined future of cooperation with Russia in space.

Author

• Colleen E. Anderson, National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian Institution