When Zaire Almost Won the Space Race 🚀

Previously, we discussed the Zambian space program, where one Edward Makuka Nkoloso, a science teacher and self-appointed Director of Zambia’s unofficial National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy, tried to send people to the moon as well as Mars. But they weren’t the only African country with a space program, or rather, the only African country where rockets to space would be launched.

First of all, let us establish the fact that Africa is better pre-destined to have rocket-launching sites, more than any other continent. This is because of its proximity to the Equator. You see, due to the earth’s rotation on its own axis, the ground underneath you moves faster the closer you are to the equator, just like the outer edge of a spinning vinyl record.

Therefore, the closer a launch site is to the equator, the more vigour the rocket will have when being launched. This explains why African countries were priority locations when European countries such as France, Germany and Italy were setting up their space programs in the 20^th Century.

Between 1947 and 1990, at least eight rocket launch sites were established in Africa, with 278 rockets being launched between this time frame. The countries where these launch sites were established include: Algeria (two of them), Egypt, Zaire (DRC), Libya, Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa.

The most interesting of them all is the Zaire one, and that’ll be our main focus today.

Rumble in the Jungle

It’s October the 25^th of 1974. Five days to the highly-anticipated Rumble in the Jungle boxing match, featuring Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Numerous dignitaries have flown into the country to watch the boxing match. On a chopper flying around Kinshasa is a man known as Frederic Weymar, who was an American advisor to the then-Zaire president, Mobutu Sese Seko.

It was he who had convinced Mobutu to have the fight in his country, as it would increase Zaire’s publicity. This was after the organizer, Don King, had been denied a chance to host it in the US. On this same chopper with Weymar, is a German aerospace engineer known as Luts Kayser.

Kayser was facing a similar problem as King. He had just set up a space company in Germany, but was denied permits and grants by the German government, since it brought about conflicts with regards to their support for the European Space Agency. Kayser, therefore, could not carry out his activities in Germany.

While on the flight, Kayser sat with Weymar, and the conversation began. Kayser told him, “I want to build rockets, but I don’t have a launching site yet.” Weymar responded, “Have you thought of Zaire?” and thus, Weymar approached Mobutu Sese Seko and convinced him, just as he had convinced him with regards to King, to offer Kayser some land to carry out his activities.

Mobutu, interestingly, had no qualms. He told Kayser, “Take a plane and search for whatever territory you need. You can take it and set up your station there. As long as you pay me my dues, which shall be 10% of what you make. Additionally, I want the first observation satellites so that I can protect my borders.” In saying this, he was referring to the border conflicts he had with Angola.

The OTRAG Project

Source: OTRAG

After scouting for a possible site for his space program, Kayser presented the contract to Mobutu Sese Seko. The negotiations happened in less than 20 minutes, and Mobutu signed the contract in agreement. By doing this, he had just granted Kayser 100,000 square kilometres of land in Shaba (modern-day Katanga Province) for an irrevocable period of 50 years. Simply put, Kayser was to own the land from 1975 to 2025. It is important to note that his territory was as huge as East Germany. It was the size of a whole country.

The land was majorly a forested plateau surrounding a river on three sides. It was highly inaccessible at the time, as there wasn’t much civilization nearby. Kayser, then, assembled his team and brought them on-site. It was a team of 50 employees. He called his space company – OTRAG (Orbital Transport- und Raketen-Aktiengesellschaft or Orbital Transport and Rockets Inc.)

It was the first commercial developer and producer of space launch vehicles. Basically what Elon Musk’s SpaceX is today. The goal of OTRAG was to develop, produce and operate low-coast satellite launch vehicles. Basically, they intended to provide a cheaper alternative to NASA’s Space Shuttle.

Of course, To achieve this, he needed venture capitalists/angel investors. He got six hundred European investors to finance his OTRAG project. On the other hand, he needed advisers on his team, so he reached out to some of the NASA Board Members.

Dr. Kurt H. Debus, a German rocket engineer who had just retired as the Director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, joined as the Chairman of the Board of OTRAG. Dr. Wernher von Braun, a German aerospace engineer who served as the Director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he handled the Apollo spacecraft that landed in the moon (thus earning the name – ‘the father of space travel’) joined OTRAG as Kayser’s adviser.

OTRAG began clearing the forest in order to create their own living and working settlement. They even built an airstrip where planes could land. Through this airstrip, they would transport the equipment that they needed.

On May 17, 1977, they had their first successful launch. Just a year later, on May 20, 1978, they had their second launch, and it too, was successful.

By this time, they had begun posing so much danger to the Western countries. Remember, it was during the Cold War, and part of the fronts on which the East and the West were waging war, was in the space race. Therefore, despite them being in competition with each other, they wouldn’t allow anyone else to join in the race, and would rather come together to bring them down.

Additionally, there was the Paris Treaty which prevented Germany from having weapons of mass destruction. The OTRAG rockets had already been considered dangerous cruise missiles, and so, the French decided to come for them. Kayser, in one of his statements, said that he’d launch spy satellites for anyone who wished. This was a very grave mistake, as both the US and USSR decided to intervene and prevent them from selling to the other party. At the same time too, 2 Russian spy satellites were immediately launched in order to monitor the activities. The powers were even pressuring Mobutu to do away with the whole space program, accusing it of being a platform through which Germany was developing strategies to attack other countries.

The third launch was slated for June 5^th 1978, just six days after the second launch. This time, President Mobutu Sese Seko, his family, his administration, and even journalists from all around the world. He was eager to see what it was all about.

Well, things sadly did not go as planned, and the rocket on this day did a nosedive, crashing on the valley just next to them. It was a bit of an embarrassment, for the whole OTRAG team, as well as Mobutu, who had planned to showcase the developments in his country to the whole world.

Following this failure, the French, Soviets, Americans and even Germans pushed him further to abandon the project, saying that it wasn’t safe for his country. He considered giving Kayser another chance. But then, at that same time, he was fighting some rebels known as the Front for the Liberation of the Congo (FNLC) during the Battle of Kolwezi.

This battle highlighted how heavily dependent he was on the West for military reinforcement. And they used this factor to leverage his decisions. The French said that they would stop supporting him until he cancels the OTRAG project.

And so, while in a conference in Brussels, Kayser suddenly noticed tens of journalists approaching him, all asking for his opinion on the recent decision. He had no idea what they were talking about, and that’s when they briefed him that Mobutu had cancelled the contract.

Remember, the contract had stipulated that Kayser had been irrevocably granted the land for 50 years, therefore, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be cancelled suddenly. There wasn’t an International Court of Justice where Kayser could petition, so, he just let the matter go.

Mobutu didn’t chase them immediately. He gave them three weeks to pack up their equipment. It was a sad moment for the whole team, as a dream had just been killed. One week before their planned date of departure, in October 1979, some of the crew members decided to go on a boat ride along River Luava in order to decompress and have fun one last time before leaving.

It has never been known whether the waves were too strong, or whether the hippos attacked them, or whatever other reason, but their boat was found by the locals having washed ashore. The locals informed the remaining crew members, who went on a search-and-rescue mission. Six bodies were found, but one couldn’t be located.

And within a month of losing their project, they also lost seven members of their team. It was a sad event, generally. They put up a boulder on the plateau, with a plaque on which the names of the seven were written.

OTRAG finally left Zaire and opened a base in the Libyan desert in 1980, in a location known as Sabha. Here, at least, they had successful launches, but seven years later, in 1987, it was shut down again. And this time, Muammar Gaddafi confiscated all their equipment and installations, possibly hoping to later use the technology for his own benefit.

After that, Lutz Kayser and his wife went to live on a tiny island in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. There, he spent the rest of his life, until his death in November 2017. Even then, he admitted that his space technology was five times cheaper than that of SpaceX.

As for Zaire, the plateau still remains empty. Who knows, how developed it would’ve been, generally, if OTRAG were allowed to conduct operations undeterred? Who knows how advanced Zaire would’ve been if they didn’t chase the scientists away? In a parallel world, that never happened. But for us, we’ll have to contend with this.