November 8, 2007(LPAC) – In his keynote address to an international congress on space research and technology, which opened in Berlin yesterday, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, director of the German Space Agency DLR, called for a return to "grand visions" in space affairs, for example, calling for a discussion about a revival of manned missions.

Woerner also called for a national German space effort, to begin with, prominently, a series of unmanned missions to the Moon and to eventually, in the next few decades, land an unmannedunnmanned research laboratory on the moon. Woerner believes that eventually they might even have manned space flight. Though, its not very ambitious, it does bring into question, what countries will they cooperate with to launch these unmanned missions?

If the United States doesn't work with them then two other options are at hand; 1) from the European Space Agency's site at Kourou, in French Guayana; or 2) from Plesetsk, the Russian space base in northern Siberia, from which Germany has already launched a number of national satellites, including some for an orbital military surveillance system (SAR-Lupe). Talks are also being conducted, between Germany and China, as well as India, both of which have lunar exploratory projects, as well.