Oberpfaffenhofen
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Oberpfaffenhofen is a village which is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany.
The village is home to a major site of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) and became hence known to a wide audience when, in 1983 the first German astronaut, the physicist Ulf Merbold flew to space on board a Space Shuttle in the context of the Spacelab missions. These missions were partly supervised by Oberpfaffenhofen ground control.1
The research centre in Oberpfaffenhofen houses the DLR including the European Space Agency and Astrium's Columbus Control Center (Europe's first "capsule communicator" (Capcom) facility), and also the Fraunhofer Institutes and other scientific institutes.
Also situated in Oberpfaffenhofen is the industrial area of (the now insolvent) Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH (later part of Fairchild Dornier). The aircraft manufacturer shared the airfield with the DLR.
1 Only the scientific mission control was in Oberpfaffenhofen, the technical stayed with NASA in Houston, Texas.
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