Kirchheim unter Teck

Infobox Ort in Deutschland
Art = Stadt
image_photo = kirchheim-teck.jpg
Wappen = Wappen Kirchheim unter Teck.pnglat_deg = 48 |lat_min = 38 |lat_sec = 54
lon_deg = 9 |lon_min = 27 |lon_sec = 4
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Baden-Württemberg
Regierungsbezirk = Stuttgart
Landkreis = Esslingen
Höhe = 311
Fläche = 40.47
Einwohner = 39916
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 73219–73230
PLZ-alt = 7312
Vorwahl = 07021
Kfz = ES
Gemeindeschlüssel = 08 1 16 033
Gliederung = 5
Adresse = Marktstraße 14
73230 Kirchheim unter Teck
Website = [http://www.kirchheim-teck.de/ www.kirchheim-teck.de]
Bürgermeister = Angelika Matt-Heidecker
Partei = SPD

Kirchheim unter Teck is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, in the district of Esslingen. It is located on the small river Lauter, a tributary of the Neckar. It is situated near the Teck castle, approximatively 25 km southeast of Stuttgart.

Transportation

Kirchheim is serviced by the "Teckbahn", a railway that connects Wendlingen am Neckar to Lenningen. Inside the city, the bus lines of the public transport group (ÖPNV) service multiple stops. All of the lines connect to stops serviced by the Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund Stuttgart (VVS), the Stuttgart public transportation group.

Autobahn 8 passes through the south side of the town and has two interchanges for east- and west-Kirchheim. Bundesstrasse 297 (Lorch - Tübingen) passes through the town, which is also a terminus of Bundesstrasse 465 that leads south through the Lenninger Valley on its way to Leutkirch im Allgäu.

Rocket launch pads

There are three launch pads for the Luftwaffe Bachem Ba 349 Natter rocket interceptors located in the Hasenholz forest near Kirchheim/Teck. They are all that remain from the once active launch site constructed in 1945. The three launchpads are arranged in the form of an equilateral triangle, whose sides point toward the east and the south. The distance between the launchpads is approximately 50 meters. The circular concrete pads on which the Bachem Ba 349's and their launch towers once stood still exist. In the center of each of the three concrete plates is a square hole approximately 50 centimeters deep, which once served as the foundation for the launch tower. Beside each hole is a pipe, cut off at ground level, which was probably once a cable pit. The Natter launchpads at Kirchheim (Teck) might be the only remnants of these rocket launch pads still on publicly accessible terrain.