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OTRAG ((ドイツ語:Orbital Transport und Raketen AG), or ドイツ語:Orbital Transport and Rockets, Inc.), was a German company based in Stuttgart, which planned in the late 1970s and early 1980s to develop an alternative propulsion system for rockets. OTRAG was the first commercial developer and producer of space launch vehicles. The OTRAG Rocket claimed to present an inexpensive alternative to existing launch systems through mass-production of ''Common Rocket Propulsion Units'' (CRPU). ==History== OTRAG was founded in 1975 by the German aerospace engineer Lutz Kayser. Its goal was to develop, produce, and operate a radically different, low cost, satellite launch vehicle. The OTRAG rocket was intended to be an inexpensive alternative to the European rocket Ariane and the NASA space shuttle. Kayser and a private consortium of six hundred European investors financed the development and production of the OTRAG satellite launch vehicle. Dr. Kurt H. Debus served as Chairman of the Board of OTRAG after his retirement as director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and Dr. Wernher von Braun served as scientific adviser to Kayser. In the face of doubts by Debus and von Braun, Kayser chose in 1975 to set up testing and launch facilities in Shaba, Zaire (now Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Debus and von Braun were concerned about the possibility of Zairian acquisition of missile technology from the facilities. Kayser decided to proceed despite their opposition, and testing began at the site in 1977. Political pressure to halt the company's operations mounted quickly. France and the Soviet Union were historically opposed to German long-distance rocket development, and pressured the Congolese government into closing down the development facility in 1979. Immediately afterwards, Presidents Giscard d'Estaing of France and Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union convinced the West German government to cancel the OTRAG project and close down its German operations. In 1980, OTRAG moved its production and testing facilities to a desert site in Libya. A series of successful tests were conducted at this site beginning in 1981.〔http://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/11/world/enigmatic-west-german-rocket-concern-finds-a-home-in-libyan-desert.html〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「OTRAG」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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