Last OTRAG rocket

In article ,
says...

I do not know the technical objectives of the test, but there was definitely a political objective.

OTRAG invited universities to design and build payloads for that test.
The RWTH Aachen did one, as did the TU Munich.

At the TU Munich, it was the "Lehrstuhl für Raumfahrttechnik" that was contacted. Not much time was given. The institute in turn asked its affiliated student group, the "Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Raketentechnik und Raumfahrt" WARR whether it was interested. I was at that time member, and as one of the few electrical engineering students there responsible for control and measurments at our rocket engine test stand. We agreed. Since it was holiday time,
only a handful of us in the end did everything. We got the "case", i.e. a ring with a plate to mount everything from them. Our experiment was to sample air at a specific altitude. Contact me, if you want to know details.
I designed and built the control electronics for the experiment.

The institute got then the invitation to send one representative to the launch in Kuruna. Nobody of the "VIPs" (professors etc.) wanted to go, so I was selected, since I could handle the mechanics of the experiment, and was the only one who knew the electronics.
However, when OTRAG learnt that only a student would come, not a PR advantageous VIP, they cancelled the invitation with a lousy reason.

We got back our experiment, after the crash. It was quite "deformed".
As reason for the failure we were told that the rocket got unstable (or got into vibrations), due to the other experiment, i.e. the one of RWTH Aachen. No other details were given to us.

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing.

Even from the "outside" OTRAG looked a bit sketchy, IMHO.

Jeff
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