In the 1960 s. The United States and the soviet union were in oil and in a race into space. It was a contest involving future amounts of material and personnel. Nasa alone employed thousands of people with the goal of putting an american on the moon. But it wasnt 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 low to get us launch hognose the 1st ever try. Good space at home and sleep. How could he not see you later and they were going to launch a rocket in order that the launch site would be somewhere in africa and thats when they came up with zaire. And almost all floods we looked at the map as well as our year anyway half know. How to discover thats roughly it will i had this feeling that going to the jungle was somehow like opening the door to some offensive well back in the bush i call it. The idea of doing it as a year geographically made sense as a trend out diplomatically there was a disaster. She wasnt sure if you want to start a technically high risk enterprise what do you do if you stick because you go to a venture capitalist just might an Angel Investor will be mad at you and youll go to Silicon Valley loft over to business your Business Partners name is mobutu sese. And something is wrong. Its a crazy story. There was also a car that program or truck was the personification of the ideas of which kaiser. Stablished book thought it was the road. To. Good as well as Kaiser Kaiser was the last time. I ever saw him there again. The string of it all started when i read these books that a fan of compound had written for war and usually. As a schoolboy i wrote a letter to vanna from asking him what he thought i should become a real an astronaut or a rocket engineer sort he replied those who want to tool and heavy to be an astronaut we need light people this big and so i took the easy route and anyway the probability of becoming an astronaut is very remote getting. Bacon jake 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 steal kaiser ended up with his wife susanna the man who spent much of his career reaching for the stars who 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 ministry 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 would 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 there given our parents were unaware of antics for thats how it was after the war in korea collected bomb fragments and i mean as short as well thats 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 thats how i came to Study Aerospace Engineering from the group home. In postwar germany looks kaiser was a pioneer best pulled the for my german space experts had long since left to work for the russians the americans. As well as the over it was a very exciting time big. It was officially from britain by the occupation statute to produce a supersonic front. Quickly found partners in crime guns i dont know from the safety coming in 1965 i arrived at the Technical University in st got you know lots kaiser he had founded the a. G. R. Arc minds a working group in rocketry and space quite at the university of st thought it shook up. In the early years the rocket crazy students had to mainly improvise. Their 1st experiments took place here. A spot i didnt for i looked up there was an old bunker the needed some stairs which a group of us built correctly 9 quickly we put in the fuel tanks the pipes the measuring instruments that i took and thats where we tested a small liquid propellant rocket engineers who said cats are typically faca get tested. And. In him i didnt get big dish this was on the outskirts of a street art suburb but a country off to a toy one think about today it was right near a residential area but we spent all our free time that was for free and i profited. Lets kaiser was adept at negotiating with the American Military also writing this they issued him a special permit for his officially forbidding missile tests as a result of his group was among the 1st to succeed in building functioning rocket engines after the. Apostles you saw mr crys or you and your colleagues of the van up on pounds of the morals and we want to try and learn from them. And problems that are inherent in Rocket Technology in Space Research from now on. Its have a german they did with your space life what did they do that was in the elder as it was called back then the europeans Work Together to build their own rockets and it didnt work they exploded or whatever is an expert the it there was no space flight test cap was kind. Of the take off of a european rocket 2 years ago in australia with the launch vehicle built by britain france and germany was a failure on for. Then economy minister posed the question. Over snitched whether there wasnt a much cheaper method of going into space. The harmons windies or stewardship of alban as a group of students we applied for this research werent and were subsequently given a Development Contract worth 3 and a half 1000000 german marks cockeye to. The students proposal was radically simple. Namely he didnt do it at all i know of course and you see we bundled together a large number of small rocket engine to us which could be produced very cheaply by serial production. By using such existing mass produced parts the production costs would be reduced still further. When saw that on and so weve built an injection sail that had a volkswagen windshield wiper a motor as its electric drive i in that earned the reputation to a how to they fly rockets with windshield wiper motor but they were only used as a driving mechanism for putting the valves closing the valves opening halfway closing exactly what a windshield wiper motor does perfectly this was unsure and that was our philosophy not high tech but low cost and just a few low sophie type take some of the low cost. In addition to the half dozen engineers in the project qualified technicians will say recreate it will suffice. Most 2 years we drive up the highway to la with one of the engines in the trunk of the car as. It was put on the test bench there and then it was tested it tasted. Good economical and inventive the rockets made in swabian was taking shape. It would just mean its if the swabian said anything able to make cars and refrigerators. The Test Facilities and employees hausen they hired on the been testing the rocket engines since 963. 00. In last months alcohol we carried out about 2000 combustion tests with this low cost and to use and believe to be fact those who flew it missed all of them over fly the it took us 2 years to realize that if instead of a liberating fox a gentle and liquid hydrogen as we strove we use nitric acid which has such a high density or he could put a lot more fuel into the writers often on our kids on the brink on. The skies are in his grave or not the only people doing tests in them parts house and rocket outs from all a video rep for arriving to be tried out here. Is engines began to arouse interest among the competition. In the outdoor. 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 arian program its called grow and ski this. To ditch the order. In the early 1970 s. The German Government decided to join the European Space agency lisa went on to. Could tie it and then we were notified your research is all well and good and c and we can no longer finance or we also dont want to finance a further kind thoughts and that was the end of our indepth so if you. Love our life. And us have said that many true think its either you file away years of work and say ok so im sorry but we didnt want to do that and lets kaiser certainly didnt include sky social garments. As shocked as you all been as he said so if we cant get any subsidies will do privacy revived and we founded a Public Limited company i now shaft the truck. To appear as credible as possible to potential donors kinds a child to win over the man who had helped to get the americans to the moon when i found brown 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 for mr kerr davis who worked with from brown at pinner monday and later on live for us army and the nasa had been the director of a carrier space or and he was an old rocket man. Could keep a straight cover debuts whereas the thai kaiser carries the model of the rocket mr debuts with lots of experience from the Moon Landing Program for more on the program and mr cards or he gives the presentation as into a course set up as a rite of company took in more than 160000000. 00 mox within a year kinds his rocket became an investment object for the wealthy ending it the nickname dentists rocket. Sized bins you see this meant that if you invested 1000000. 00 you could write off 2600000. 00 of losses for tax purposes he adds for you stood up shriver. 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 the time we had fully developed the technology and bench tested everything the next the next stage was flight testing which we couldnt do in germany for insurance reasons as the population density is too hot wars as to. How they needed founded otranto finally found alone scientists one of the most bizarre chapters in space history. In myanmar and say in a few insects it got this 1974. It was the year of the historic boxing if known as the rumble in the jungle between muhammad ali and George Foreman when George Forman last im not there may not that one of the people who organized this fight house i. E. Rugby york with a feather. And internationally active businessmen we met by chance on the airplane flights and i think to convince you we started talking through what you do i organized boxing fights among other things what do you do with forms Going Forward we build rockets but we dont have a launch site. And he said what about so youre suggesting that so youre with. The Central African state of todays democratic republic of congo it gained independence from belgium in 1960 to its political laser and Mobutu Sese Seko who came to power in 1960 and had a weakness for german technology. To deliver good living through peace and for home to take a plane and fly around and see if you can find something suitable from los. Angles i want to run the 1st observation satellites of my surveillance of my own to see it will. Go down. To the prestige 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 talk loudest. Mobutu was extremely corrupt. Yalit book but he was supported at the time by the french the americans build his own john and generally by the europeans. Because neighboring angola was supported by and also impact country missiles that the department of the sharif hot rock for one bush. 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. You had to look for a top kilometer as this was a huge area which we could hardly manage with our 304050 employees. The contract signed in 1975 was not determinable until 2025 the site was located in the south as they are between angola and tanzania it was sparsely populated but there were regular scam a ship is if the borders between the enemy states. Would be harmed and i knew a whole block toy and we found a high plateau in the middle of these 100000 square kilometers just went numb to what flow was the river next to a dense jungle and can above that was the highlands where the climate similar to switzerlands the harm done from who was. More time group of chainsaw year old sound from the helicopter and quickly cleared the 20 to 30 meter diameter area of the helicopter to learn about on the plots to cut back on salt and bit by bit we cleared the plateau now hold off the bottom of. The order in order to build the infrastructure in the middle of the jungle track teamed up with a Civil Engineer with a lot of experience in africa victim to. His companys staving had already realized numerous projects in his i. Mean i thought they were all weird it wasnt the 1st thing is the mark they were 78 people it was someone really the end of the world where no ones ever seen before and thats where they went i looked at them until they know exactly who this. With time you learn a lot through experience you know. And i thought what on earth is this not doing in the bush justice was for the bush. Plan. To live a man succeeded in building a 4 kilometer long runway through the rough terrain on the plateau and soon afterwards the runway would be listed on International Flight charts under the name hoover while at ports. For the move from germany to zaire boat. And subsequently founded it 7 and 9 under the congolese fly. Us. Blind from from the British Air Force of painted them fire engine red so we could find them in the bar she was. On i thank i well im cautious so we set up a big open 10 where the team assembled the rockets and since im new ball i just try to move it was basically a balloon like a beer tent to have it settled and we called the tanks the by their embassy. Thanks. Initially the 40 strong team slept in tents for the 1st few months while it eludes was built using local materials. To showcase of the complex was the restaurant with a total of 80 seats. Thanks i was. Worried i am not god one and a half years after the start of the work and we were able to carry out our 1st. Trial run was we built a scaffold from local water so we rode to the rocket good ultimately. The film there was this amazing feeling of optimism for a while you couldnt help but think of the for this is going to succeed was just looking for lamb and space flight was not what our track had in mind the aim was to launch satellites into space with its rockets. The 1st test took it was 6 meters no. Tension with time as the team made the final little preparations thanks to smallville that was may 17th 1077 a really exciting day for all of us which ones i did. It wasnt bush and freedom i was a bit of a film and photo man i know how to plots i used the hassle the camera that the astronauts took with them to the movie. Or in the middle of the stack all to cover the corsican not too late on general doorbell and then came the countdown to 0. From 10 to 0 of no. Ah. I. Keep it under and up into the blue sky as i hear. There was a ton of play loud with a tip it went top 10 kilometers easy a kilometer ho the successful 1st step out to coast consternation elsewhere the program was taken seriously. After these launch because they really had a rock it didnt 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 a vapid trick or a film at the wrong speed gave the 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. Soon there were frequent reports that the russians had launched spy satellites to observe the trunk site from about. However the weapons on the planet i went to where it stands. We were pretty off the beaten track and i know where what was going on in the square there wasnt much wrong with the world up there for the law each to build upon looking. Up at them said will work for my life i used to make my own sausages lies lies and white drop words real sausage. I also made a fine salami cocktail of sausage for my they were very popular and i talk all. Much more. Second but im getting along all along i was more of a roast meat i also made a kind of blood sausage and a liver sausage well the internet was also my restaurant indeed on the edge of my mind a. List of the often not. Much you will get i also tried making a game salami with annele and wild boar. There was a lot of fun it was a treat. For me it was for me it was your adventure. A real adventure. Of all of the there for 2 or 3 days then hed fly away again be on the road for a week and then come back im. 43 years old one of the most colorful figures in the International Space industry among other things im going to miss the main channel that im chairman of the Supervisory Board or traffic i think the aim of this company is to transport satellites into orbit in respective off who wants the satellites launched vehicle to what purpose that they need who is also in it wasnt 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 says programs they knew about each others progress they did not like the idea of other countries having the same pictures as they were getting because they were things that they were. Couldnt 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 contributor to the area and commercial our system so anything that would distract from their business was something that the french through very eager to strangle. Printers usually underestimated the political importance of ships to. Get my leadership a former chief correspondent for the new york times. How to publish an article in the girly magazine 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 historian. And. Theres a 2 page spread of a painting allegedly showing a Cruise Missile flying over in fact a draft. Was cute about it is they put all the right symbols on there if theres an ice iron cross on the wrong confusing notches. Or that was absolutely fictitious. Extolled there. They were scientists as real as the giraffes in the picture. That this was imagine or but it was imaginary in a very deliberate purpose and do 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 crossed the border and took the city of cholesky the. Base served as a pretext for the attack. And more than that it is certainly given the scarcely considered military kind of track and given that track booker prize part of the territory of say yes it follows that the tribe is an enemy that must be removed. At b. B. C. Journalist informed of charges of imminent rebel attacks on the. Well not to be shown of course you get scared if you think youre going to get ordered. A muppet felt. That in order that they wanted to on the people up there i said this is crazy 1st of all were not military experts to see if it was good and its more dangerous for us than for anyone whos threatening us here. We needed people to take charge of security. I mean it was when i arrived on the plateau my 1st impression was things were very serious cut i mean for former legionnaire starting a missile base. Thats not very serious. The legion as began training local people and security troops. But with the uniforms in germany and the like. We equipped them with used clothing made them look like soldiers which they were mostly. Disuse and it was just for show. Because as simple as that simply because. There wasnt much behind it really. Had received much International Criticism for the rocket hate trying to visit changing 978. Oh god we have announced a launch and somehow the governor of your own bash he found out about her through the fall he told me that we were planning a takeoff on a saturday to intervene and suddenly there he was one morning landing in his how kellys on i feel throughputs. Practice i next to a not only brought his extended family something he brought his entire Government Team with him and for the defense minister interior minister when i needed a large number of journalists from all over the world it. Was a big theres so many. That you see she just is able hes got. To see a little part up will see the top subtle measure the ball some of the balls but give a very supple she double beat. The film youre coming for you all the physic to for this would be just. The famous the fall the fall before you know the going to see this recession. Hit the genesis of us as the from the comics come soon. I want. To. Say good set but i say. All right ill save it thanks ben. But i. Know it. Well the thing is. That d if. Off. For. The locus of this was an important test launch of the out there and the fact that it failed in the presence of mobutu encourage the french soviets americans and possibly also to germans to convince mobutu to stop the project you know arguing that it would only damage his reputation the toff. The voter was supposed to want us and mr gore titians like you have received weapons assistance and Financial Aid in return because you told us you can stay in the country but no more rocket launches what kind of rocket struck. This another drama was about to engulf the track in the summer of 1979. Those were 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. Issues are torn clothing came up with the idea of flying a boat to a lake about 80 kilometers away and going down the river youre going to find that was 3 weeks before we left to go before while. In front of us it is hardly dishy i was on the air that are really nice and we thought part of it would be nice to have a leg on the river just floating along this beach to nice and relaxation when the 2 im going to minister fall into the but. This was a fishing for about 8 deep dark personal some wanted to couple look and those that didnt stay and i was the idealists on course i went off. On holiday consumed alone knew. Everyone was in good spirit see overlooked others or go how the river was while there were some fairly big weights which we hadnt seen from the player. We all left the waves crashed over the side soon as wooden started shaking and took on a lot of water and how it was hard to live without i hear the fuss my. Born since why stick this in the name of 2 and then 2 of the team met us on motorbikes are more childish we plan to meet a lot aleksandar one of them said he didnt feel like riding back against the exhaust so i said id take the bike back for a week or 2 oclock. Towards evening some guys arrived and set it found a balanced boat. That was officer. Everyone we had the old truck helicopter and one from the zaire anomaly it was. Sort of blue 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 thats what made it very complicated sensitive that we couldnt recover all of them look we to salute true grit but to see. Clickable you go to recover the bodies the result the Raphael Giani of legal know no one helped us we had to take on the risk on our own. They were lying there in the water bodies all blackened sequel horrible. To think about us thought of the thundering. Fleet. Graph. You 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 i was in that they all died and i was the sole survivor show thats still something i cant understand it so that was from. Ok it was the boat wives parties were given sometimes you need a little luck in life. I think in the new stuff when the only one they didnt manage to find was my husband who may of us never heard anything about him again he was simply gone from. The Public Prosecutors Office in stuttgart to try to investigate what they gave up relatively quickly divert the suspicion that some secret service was behind it was wanted and couldnt be disproven if the but it cant be proven either used in the us. As hes think its hard to feel i think that kind of broke the back of the old truck company. Do you think having these 7 technicians died there suddenly the delphi model get comments and. Just as the repetition ego caught up in the powerful currents of the new who were river so did get caught up in the machinery of World Politics and ultimately fell by the wayside. We need people like kaiser to keep pushing the envelope and pushing the Technology Beyond words even aware surely plausible because we have to find out where the boundary of us. During a project like go trolling for all the consequences of the other inadvertent consequences are sometimes fatal consequence of the people involved our. Space technology is by nature 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 cant cut corners remains a question for human judgement and human folly. Heaven only knows where the kaisers rockets would ever have been seriously competitive. Was forced to bend to political pressure before it really got started. Ultimately the cooperation with the controversial despot in the bush 2 and the competitions fears of a viable german rocket led to the early end of the enterprise. Kaisers format empire shrank to the size of a Pacific Island he himself remained convinced of the feasibility of his rockets he continued to risk. To wait and research and hoping that people would one day appreciate his invention and for us it was. Fine this is one of the original rocky tanks from our Flight Test Program you know we developed these modules. Which could be assembled from individual parts. Video like a lego. Film and of all the entire rockets can be assembled by 3 technicians on the board. He was never destined to see whether his dream would become a reality. Lets kaiser died on his island shortly after the end of the shooting for this film. Behind the facades and ghostly quiet. The global odyssey has been devastated by the pandemic and the sign of the revival of. Our audiences the company with the crisis. Goes to the cities around the world to find out. March 29th. In 30 minutes on d w. Im david and this is Climate Change brags that sex. Happiness increase book. This is the book for you. To get smarter for free to go where you go on you tube. Are they friends. Or are they even enemies who might have a word for roger. Donald trump and the bloody near prove our 2 part documentary analyzes the difficult relationship between russia and the us and between their president s how does their rivalry and their dangerous mutual admiration affect the rest of the world. Bosom bullies trump and putin starts august 3rd on d w. This is d. W. Newsline throw berlin deadlock and brussels at the 2nd full day of intense negotiations nears the end brussels e. U. Leaders haggling over a new proposals on how to divvy up a 750000000000 Euro Coronavirus Recovery Fund they have green relief is needed but sometimes trees dont believe it should be handed out with no Strings Attached also coming out of the 15th century can be told in flames french authorities launch an arson inquiry after a major