page_title: Walter Hohmann
section_title: Walter-Hohmann-Observatory
hierarchical_section_title: Walter Hohmann / Walter-Hohmann-Observatory
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Walter-Hohmann Gedenktafel an der Walter-Hohmann-Sternwarte, Essen, Deutschland
context_page_description: Walter Hohmann was a German engineer who made an important contribution to the understanding of orbital dynamics. In a book published in 1925, Hohmann demonstrated a fuel-efficient path to move a spacecraft between two different orbits, now called a Hohmann transfer orbit. He received his Ph.D. from the RWTH Aachen University in 1920.
context_section_description: In 2009 the Walter-Hohmann-Observatory in Essen, Germany installed a Commemorative plaque at their ground:
  Walter Hohmann was born as the son of a doctor and visited the high-school in Würzburg (Germany), where he graduated In 1900. He studied engineering at the technical university in Munich (Germany) and worked from 1904 as an engineer for structural analysis in Vienna (Austria), Berlin (Germany), Hanover (Germany) and Wroclaw (Germany). From 1912 he worked as a city planner and director of the static building office and the department of materials testing of the city of Essen (Germany). Here he died in a hospital on 11.03.1945, shortly before the war ended. His honorary grave is located at the cemetery at "Meisenburgstraße" in the city of Essen (Germany).
  In his spare time he devoted himself to celestial mechanics calculations, and in 1920 he published his book "Die Erreichbarkeit der Himmelskörper" (The Attainability of the Celestial Bodies). He developed basic principles and created advanced tools necessary for the conquest of space. His ideas were taken up for the Apollo program and the Voyager spacecraft (for example). Today he is considered a pioneer of space travel.
  In recognition of his scientific achievements, a lunar crater was named after him in 1970. The Astronomical Association of Essen (Germany) gave itself the name "Walter-Hohmann-Observatory" in 1971. Also asteroid 9661 Hohmann is named after him.
caption: Commemorative plaque at the Walter-Hohmann-Observatory
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