The DLR site at Lampoldshausen, which employs some 230 staff, was founded in 1959 by space pioneer Professor Eugen Sänger to act as a test site for liquid rocket engines. The site went into operation in 1962.
As a child, she preferred to watch the first launch of an Ariane rocket on 24 December 1979 instead of eating cookies by the Christmas tree. At 10, her wish was to become an astronaut.
The Automated Transfer Vehicle Johannes Kepler was launched on a specially modified launcher, the Ariane 5ES, at 22:50 CET on 16 February 2011 from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana. The second space cargo carrier in the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) programme, it is now en route to the International Space Station (ISS). The German contribution to the ATV programme is managed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) through its Space Agency.