Lutz Kayser, a Swabian engineer, has dreamed of the stars since childhood. In 1969, he and other members of a student working group won a research contract from the German government to develop alternative forms of propulsion for the European rocket program. At the beginning of the 1970s, when the German government no longer wanted to fund this research, Kayser founded OTRAG (Orbital Transport und Raketen Aktiengesellschaft) - the world's first private space company.