Oberpfaffenhofen
Encyclopedia
Oberpfaffenhofen is a village which is part of the municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Weßling
Weßling
Weßling is a municipality in the district of Starnberg in Bavaria, Germany....

 in the district of Starnberg
Starnberg (district)
Starnberg is a Kreis in the southern part of Bavaria, Germany. Neighboring districts are Fürstenfeldbruck, Munich, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Weilheim-Schongau and Landsberg....

, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is 20 kilometers from the city center of Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

.

The village is home to a major site of the German Aerospace Center
German Aerospace Center
The German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in...

 (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) and became hence known to a wide audience when, in 1983 the first West-German astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

, the physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

 Ulf Merbold
Ulf Merbold
Dr. Ulf Dietrich Merbold is the first West German citizen and second German native to have flown in space. He is also the first member of the European Space Agency Astronaut Corps to participate in a spaceflight mission. He holds the distinction of being the first non-US citizen to reach orbit in...

 flew to space on board a Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

 in the context of the Spacelab
Spacelab
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory consisted of multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier and other related hardware housed in the Shuttle's cargo bay...

 missions. These missions were partly supervised by the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) located at Oberpfaffenhofen.

The research centre in Oberpfaffenhofen houses the DLR, including the Columbus Control Center
Columbus Control Center
The Columbus Control Centre is the Mission Control Center which is used to control the European Columbus research laboratory, which is part of the International Space Station . The control centre is located at the German Aerospace Center facility in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany...

 which DLR operates for the European Space Agency
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

 and EADS Astrium
EADS Astrium
Astrium Satellites is one of the three business units of Astrium, a subsidiary of EADS. It is a European space manufacturer involved in the manufacture of spacecraft used for science, Earth observation and telecommunication, as well as the equipment and subsystems used therein and related ground...

, and also the Fraunhofer Institutes and other scientific institutes.

Also situated in Oberpfaffenhofen is the industrial area of (the now insolvent
Insolvency
Insolvency means the inability to pay one's debts as they fall due. Usually used to refer to a business, insolvency refers to the inability of a company to pay off its debts.Business insolvency is defined in two different ways:...

) Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH (later part of Fairchild Dornier). The aircraft manufacturer
Aerospace manufacturer
An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, and/or spacecraft....

 shared the airfield
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

with the DLR.

External links

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