Professor Eugen Saenger, the West German rocket expert declared today in an interview in the Daily Telegraph that he and Egyptian engineers had built a rocket in Egypt capable of reaching a height of 300 miles.
He said in the interview, which took place in Berlin, that the Egyptians had invited him to Cairo in the spring of 1960 “to make a meteorological-sounding rocket.” In October 1961, the West German Government asked him and his colleagues, all formerly from Space Departments at Stuttgart, to return to West Germany. He said he did so, but that most of his colleagues stayed in Egypt.
Professor Singer said he thought there were three really skilled West German space scientists still in Egypt, and about a dozen others of lower scientific status. Earlier this year, Israel formally charged that the West German scientists were working on advanced weapons systems to be used against Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
