About us

Michael Bartusch is the TanDEM-X Project Manager. His ‘home base’ is the Earth Observation Division of DLR Space Management in Bonn. He has accompanied the satellite on its journey from Munich to Baikonur.
 
Stefan Baumgartner is a researcher at the DLR Microwaves and Radar Institute. His main task is the development of algorithms for traffic monitoring using airborne and satellite radar systems. 
Hermann Berg is also form the Earth Observation Division of DLR Space Management Bonn. Currently in Baikonur, he is blogging straight from the assembly hall and also keeps an eye on the mission mascot: the crocodile.
  

Amruta Mehta is a scientist by training and communicator by chance. She is originally from Mumbai, India, and currently lives and works in the Netherlands. Employed by EJR-Quartz BV, a Leiden-based company, she is the lead English-language Editor for DLR's online and print media.

 
Stefan Buckreuss is the Mission Manager for TerraSAR-X as well as TanDEM-X. He blogs from the DLR Institute of Microwaves and Radar and the German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen. He is responsible for the smooth running of the mission and coordinates the activities of all involved parties. 
Thomas Fritz is responsible for the TanDEM-X data processing chain – the synthetic aperture radar and interferometry processors. These generate the radar products from the raw data stream and then derive the elevation models. He blogs from the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (Institut für Methodik der Fernerkundung; IMF), where this globally distributed software is developed and the first TanDEM-X images and digital elevation models were produced. 
As the Mission Operations Director, Harald Hofmann is responsible for mission operations. From the Mission Control Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, he is reporting on how the twin satellites fly in orbit and how they are controlled. 
Ralph Kahle works at the German Space operations Center (GSOC), where he is responsible for the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X flight dynamics system. The flight dynamics tasks include the determination of the orbits and attitudes of the satellites, the generation of auxiliary products for radar processing, the millimetre-exact determination of the satellite positions and the control of the satellite formation. 
Gerhard Krieger is head of the Radar Concepts Department at the Microwaves and Radar Institute (Institut für Hochfrequenztechnik und Radarsysteme). In his department, innovative imaging technologies and applications are explored for future radar systems. He is one of the 'fathers' of the TanDEM-X mission. 
Marc Rodriguez-Cassola is a scientist at the Microwaves and Radar Institute (Institut für Hochfrequenztechnik und Radarsysteme). He examines new radar techniques, focussing on bistatic synthetic aperture radar. 
Rolf Scheiber is head of the Signal Processing Group in the SAR Technology Department at DLR's Microwaves and Radar Institute. His fields of interest include all aspects of SAR interferometry. Apart from analysing data from aircraft-borne interferometric SAR missions, he is also involved in various TerraSAR-X data evaluation projects. 
Egbert Schwarz is leader of the real-time systems team in the National Ground Segment Department at the Applied Remote Sensing Cluster (Cluster Angewandte Fernerkundung; CAF) and, in the TerraSAR-X project, is responsible for the operational processing of synthetic aperture radar data in Neustrelitz. 
Marco Trovatello is the Head of the Cross Media section of the DLR Corporate Communications Department. In this capacity, he is responsible for DLR’s online and print media, as well as corporate design. This blog was his idea, and he populates it every now and then. His 'home base' is Cologne, and for the launch, he is in Oberpfaffenhofen to coordinate real-time communication via blogs, twitter channels, chat and live stream. 
Birgit Schättler works as a systems engineer for synthetic aperture radar systems ground segment satellite support at the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (Institut für Methodik der Fernerkundung; IMF). She is responsible for the integration of TanDEM-X ground segment and ensures the smooth interaction of the systems outside the control rooms. 
Michael Schmidhuber is based at DLRs German Space Operations Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, within DLR Space Operations and Astronaut Training. The DLR 'agent', responsible for a good rapport between GSOC and Baikonur, he is currently blogging straight from the launch site.