Work was carried out with the DLR from the early 1980s Aerospace Research Establishment in Porz-Wahn during scientific preparation for Spacelab-1 (STS-9) and Spacelab-D1 (STS-61A), for which the DLR Cologne played a central role, hosting ESA’s Spacelab Payload Integration & Coordination in Europe - SPICE – office. This office provided support for training, scientific preparation and baseline data collection, for all the European Space Sled experiments for which Dr Kass was responsible from the Principle Investigator’s office at the University of Mains.

Industrial R&D was also carried out in the domain of human spaceflight with technical and operational support for German-Russian MIR-97 mission, with work on the design, development and operation of a portable medical experiment facility, MEDEX; work included astronaut training and mission operational support during German, Russian, and American collaborative experiments. Operations during the mission were carried out at the DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, German. Psychological expertise was also provided during long-duration 60-day human isolation experiment, EXEMSI-92 (EXperimental campaign for European Manned Space Infrastructure); this work was carried out at the DLR Cologne establishment.