German Aerospace Center - Overview

Overview

The DLR currently employs about 6,200 people. It has 29 institutes and facilities, spread over 13 sites, as well as offices in Brussels, Paris and Washington, D.C. DLR has a budget of about 670 million euro to cover its own research and development activities as well as its operational tasks. Approximately one third of this sum comes from competitively allocated third-party funds (German: Drittmittel). In addition to this, DLR administers around 500 million euro in German funds for the European Space Agency (ESA). In its capacity as project management agency, it manages over 650 million euro in funds earmarked for research in a wide range of fields on behalf of German federal ministries. DLR is a full member of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) and a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

In the context of DLR’s initiatives to promote young research talent, seven DLR School Labs were set up in Berlin-Adlershof, Göttingen, Hamburg-Harburg, Lampoldshausen/Stuttgart, Cologne-Porz, Oberpfaffenhofen and Dortmund over the past years. In the DLR School Labs, school pupils can become acquainted with the practical aspects of natural and engineering sciences by conducting interesting experiments.

The members of the DLR Executive Board are:

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johann-Dietrich Wörner (Chairman) since March 2007
• Klaus Hamacher (Vice Chairman) since April 2006
• Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Hansjörg Dittus (Executive Board member for space research and development) since June 2011.
• Prof. Rolf Henke (Executive Board member for aeronautics) since November 2010
• Ulrich Wagner (Executive Board member for energie and transport) since March 2010
• Gerd Gruppe (Executive Board member for space administration) since April 2011