Wernher von Braun, the
son of a Prussian baron, was born in Wirsitz, Germany in 1912. He
studied engineering at Berlin's Charlottenburg Institute of Technology
and after reading The Rocket into Interplanetary Space by Hermann
Oberth, he became interested in rocket technology and helped form
the German Society for Space Travel.
In 1932 Braun's achievements
attracted the attentions of Walter Dornberger, who was in charge
of the solid-fuel rocket research and development in the Ordnance
Department of the German Army. Dornberger recruited Braun and in
1934 he successfully built two rockets that rose vertically for
more the than 2.4 kilometres (1.5 miles).
Dornberger was appointed
military commander of rocket research station at Peenemunde in 1937.
Braun became technical director of the establishment and he began
to develop the long-range ballistic missile, the A4 and the supersonic
anti-aircraft missile Wasserfall.
During the Second World
War Braun began working on a new secret weapon, the V2 Rocket. This
45 feet long, liquid-fuelled rocket carried a one ton warhead, and
was capable of supersonic speed and could fly at an altitude of
over 50 miles. As a result it could not be effectively stopped once
launched.
Heinrich Himmler saw
the military potential of Braun's research and took over control
of the research station. Himmler became increasingly concerned about
the motivation of Braun, considering him more interested in space
travel than developing bombs. In March, 1944, Braun was arrested
by the Gestapo and was only released when they became convinced
that Braun was willing to use all his energies to develop this bomb
that Himmler believed had the potential to win the war.
The V2 Rocket was first
used in September, 1944. Over 5,000 V-2s were fired on Britain.
However, only 1,100 reached their target. These rockets killed 2,724
people and badly injured 6,000. After the D-Day landings, Allied
troops were on mainland Europe and they were able to capture the
launch sites and by March, 1945, the attacks came to an end.
With the Red Army advancing
on the Peenemunde Research Station, Braun and his staff fled west
and surrendered to the US Army. Braun and 40 other rocker scientists
were taken to the United States where they worked on the development
of nuclear missiles.
In 1952 Braun became
technical director of the US Army's Ballistic Missile Agency at
Huntsville, Alabama and was chiefly responsible for the manufacture
and successful launching of Redstone, Jupiter-C, Juno and Pershing
missiles.
After the Soviet Union
successfully launched Sputnik on 4th October, 1957, Braun concentrated
on the development of space rockets and in January, 1958 launched
Explorer I.
In 1960 Braun became
director of the Marshall Space Flight Center where he developed
the Saturn rocket that helped the United States to land on the moon
in 1969.
When President Richard
Nixon dramatically reduced the space budget in 1972 Braun resigned
and became vice-president of Fairchild Industries, an aerospace
company
Wernher von Braun, who
wrote the books Conquest of the Moon
(1953) and Space Frontier (1967)
died of cancer at Alexandria on 16th June, 1977.
