Introduction to Space Exploration - Wernher Von Braun

World War II ushered in the rocket age. The Nazi government of Germany was eager to use rockets against its enemies. The great talents and minds of the VfR were directed to forget about space travel and concentrate on warfare. During the early 1940s Germany developed the most sophisticated rocket program in the world. At its helm was a brilliant young man named Wernher von Braun (1912–1977).

Von Braun had been an assistant to Professor Oberth during the 1930s and an active member of the VfR. He was put in charge of developing a rocket weapon to terrorize the British population. Von Braun's team included Oberth and hundreds of people who worked at a remote island called Pennemünde. They developed the rocket-powered Vergeltungswaffens or weapons of vengeance. They were called V weapons, for short.

There were two series of V weapons. The V-1 carried a ton of explosives and traveled at a top speed of about 400 miles per hour. This was slow enough that British gunners could blow apart the V-1's as they descended through the air. Although thousands of V-1's were launched against England roughly half of them never impacted the ground.

Far more lethal was the second V weapon called the V-2. This was truly a rocket with a top speed around 2,000 miles per hour. The V-2's traveled far too fast to be shot down and terrified the British public. Approximately 1,000 V-2 rockets rained down on England during World War II killing 115,000 people.

On September 8, 1944, the first V-2 rocket fell on London. Supposedly von Braun turned to his colleagues and said "the rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet." The tide had already turned against Germany. By early 1945 the country was being invaded by the Soviets from the east and the Allies from the west. Historians say that von Braun moved his team near the Germany-Switzerland border to be in position to surrender to American forces.

A negotiated surrender was worked out in which von Braun turned over himself, people on his team, and vital plans, drawings, rocket parts, and documents. In exchange the U.S. Army agreed to transport the team to America and fund their work on an American rocket program. The Army called the agreement Operation Paperclip. They had no way of knowing that this move was going to put Americans on the Moon.