Safety on site - Operating a test facility for a flight stage

The German Aerospace Center DLR is the German research institute with approximately 8000 employees in 20domestic locations. Among the aerospace research priorities of the German Aerospace Center DLR it includes also energy, safety and transport. DLR is institutionally supported by federal and state governments. Next funding sources arise in the context of third-party funds business (contract research and public contracts and subsidiaries). Main activities of the test center Lampoldshausen are testing of ARIANE's main and upper stage engines in the frame of ESA contracts. In the last years the test center of the DLR in Lampoldshausen has grown strongly over more than 30 %, so that the number of employees is actually of about 320. The testing department is mainly responsible for rocket combustion testing according to customer requirements. Two kinds of test facilities are operated, sea level test facilities and the altitude simulation test facilities. In addition to the DLR's growth also the activities of the industrial partner Ariane Group has been elevated so that actually nearly 600 employees are present on site Lampoldshausen. The management of the site in relation to safety and security requires special measures with special respect to the presence of more people inside the testing area in order to guarantee trouble-free and safe experimental operation onsite the DLR ' s test plants. In order to meet with the future needs of continuing growth, the security and safety requirements have to be adopted. This report gives comprehensive outlook information about future possible scenarios of our coming tasks. Main driving force for future requests is the evolution of the rocket ARIANE. The new test position P5.2 has been erected to perform the qualification of the new upper stage with the VINCI engine. This project is very complex. In parallel to the construction work and acceptance testing actual running operation processes requires special procedures related to the overall safety of the test center. The site of Lampoldshausen with its test and supply facilities is subject to the restrictions of the German law Bundesimissionsschutzgesetz (derived from the European SEVESO-III directive) and its relevant ordinances, especially the Hazardous Incident Ordinance. Because of the complex framework effort which guarantees safety and security, Lampoldshausen has invested in people and processes in order to respect the restrictions of all relevant laws and ordinances as well as to guarantee the protection of people and the environment. Therefor a very special Master plan has been developed, with the goal to rearrange the complete testing area in order to be able to divide the area in certain sectors (testing range, technology and bureau) so that future testing enterprises will not affect almost free testing activities inside the site as it is in the present status. The paper provides comprehensive information related to the applied innovations including detailed background facts linked to the established safety and security standard applications.