a teenager, von Braun had held a keen interest in spaceflight, becoming
involved in the German rocket society, Verein fur Raumschiffarht (VfR), as
early as 1929. As a means of furthering his desire to build large and
capable rockets, in 1932 he went to work for the German army to develop
ballistic missiles. When Hitler came to power in 1933, von Braun remained
in Germany and continued to work for the army.
Dr. Von Braun among a famous
group of rocket experimenters
in Germany in the 1930s. He is shown second from right.
engaged in this work, on July 27, 1934 von Braun received a Ph.D. in
aerospace engineering. Throughout the 1930s von Braun continued to develop
rockets for the German army, and by 1941 designs had been developed for
the ballistic missile that eventually became the V-2. The brainchild of
Wernher von Braun's rocket team operating at a secret laboratory at
Peenemünde on the Baltic coast, this rocket was the immediate antecedent
of those used in space exploration programs in the United States and the
Soviet Union. A liquid propellant missile extending some 46 feet (14
meters) in length and weighing 27,000 pounds (12,247 kilograms), the V-2
flew at speeds in excess of 3,500 miles per hour (5,633 kilometres per
hour) and delivered a 2,200-pound (998-kilogram) warhead to a target 500
miles (805 kilometres) away. First flown in October 1942, it was used
against targets in Europe beginning in September 1944. On September 6, for
instance, more than 6,000 Germans deployed to Holland and northern Germany
to bomb Belgium, France, and London with those newly developed V-2s.
Young Dr. Von Braun holding
a model of a V-2 rocket
Beginning on September 8, 1944, these forces began launching V-2s against
Allied cities, especially Antwerp, Belgium, and London, England.
Manufactured by concentration camp labor—a fact that tarnished the
reputation of von Braun and his rocket team ever after-by the end of the
war 1,155 V-2s had been fired against England and another 1,675 had been
launched against Antwerp and other continental targets. The guidance
system for these missiles was imperfect and many did not reach their
targets, but they struck without warning and there was no defence against
them. As a result the V-2s had a terror factor far beyond their
beginning of 1945, it was obvious to von Braun that Germany would not
achieve victory against the Allies, and he began planning for the post-war
era. Before the Allied capture of the V-2 rocket complex, von Braun
arranged the surrender of 500 of his best rocket scientists, along with
plans and test vehicles, to the Americans. For 15 years after World War
II, von Braun would work with the U.S. Army in the development of
Dr. Von Braun (with arm in
cast) surrendering to the
U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Personnel in Europe, April 1945.
of the intriguing nature of the V-2 technology, von Braun and his chief
assistants achieved near-celebrity status inside the American military
establishment. As part of a military operation called Project Paperclip,
he and his “rocket team” were transported from defeated Germany to America
where they were installed at Fort Bliss, Texas. There they worked on
rockets for the U.S. Army, launching them at White Sands Proving Ground,
New Mexico. In 1950, von Braun's team moved to the Redstone Arsenal near
Huntsville, Alabama, where they built the army's Jupiter ballistic
missile, and before that the Redstone, used by NASA to launch the first
Mercury capsules. In 1960, von Braun's rocket development centre was
transferred from the Army to the newly established National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) and received a mandate to build the giant
Saturn rocket. Accordingly, von Braun became director of NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Centre and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch
vehicle, the superbooster that propelled Americans to the Moon in the
1960s and early 1970s.
Eisenhower and Dr. Von Braun during the president's
tour of the Marshall Space Flight Centre on September 28, 1960.
The president spoke at the dedication ceremony for the Marshall centre.
Braun also became one of the most prominent spokesmen of space exploration
in the United States in the 1950s. In 1952, he gained note as a
participant in a major symposium dedicated to the subject, and burst on
the Nation's stage in the fall of 1952 with a series of articles in
Collier's, a popular weekly periodical of the era. He also became a
household name with his appearance on three Disney television shows
dedicated to space exploration in the mid-1950s.
Dr. Von Braun, right, holds the coveted Hermann Oberth award, presented
to him by Dr. Oberth on October 19, 1961, during an Alabama Section
of the American Rocket Society. Early in his career, Von Braun was a
student of Oberth,
one of the world's foremost theorists on space propulsion.
the NASA leadership asked von Braun to move to Washington, D.C., to head
the strategic planning effort for the agency. He left his home in
Huntsville, Alabama, but in less than two years he decided to retire from
NASA and work for Fairchild Industries of Germantown, Maryland. He died in
Alexandria, Virginia, on June 16, 1977.
Dr. Von Braun, right, worked
directly with America's first seven astronauts.
This photo is believed to have been taken about 1959 in the Fabrication
of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville.
The astronauts are, from left, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard,
John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton.