Space Race All Started With Wernher Von Braun

Wernher Von Braun standing at his desk at NASA HQ.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 - June 16, 1977) was a German (and, later, American) aerospace engineer and space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the father of rocket technology and space science in the United States. In his twenties and early thirties, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program.

He helped design and develop the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II. Following the war, he was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip. He worked for the United States Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) program and he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1.

His group was assimilated into NASA, where he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V super heavy-lift launch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. In 1975, von Braun received the National Medal of Science. He advocated a human mission to Mars.

The controversial part of Herr Wernher:

This was almost an afterthought in Wikipedia when in fact it should be the prominent part because he renounced the past and he was the first to admit that the stuff he did in Germany was

Wernher Von Braun demonstrating one of his many rocket designs to the camera.

Awards

Elliott Cresson Medal (1962) Wilhelm Exner Medal (1969)

National Medal of Science (1975) Military career Allegiance Nazi Germany Service/branch Flag of the Schutzstaffel.svg SS Years of service 1937–45 Rank SS-Sturmbannführer collar.svg SS-Sturmbannführer (major)

Awards

Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords (1944)

War Merit Cross, First Class with Swords (1943).

Other work

Rocket engineer, NASA, Chief Architect of the Saturn V rocket of the Apollo manned lunar missions, engineering program manager. As much as I would have liked to of done the introduction to anyone else for this website's very first post. We can't escape the fact that Wernher Von Braun is the father of space travel and space inventions in general and without him and his technologicaknowledgege just couldn't have gone to the Moon let alone get off the planet. So we had to do this.