Von Braun - Space Program

General Eisenhower

In April 1945, General Eisenhower was ordered to gather, control, and preserve all documents, records, and plans related to German industry and science, along with other materials from German organizations serving military objectives. By May of that year, this order expanded to include scientists, engineers, and missile experts from Germany. As a result of Operation Paperclip, records of German scientists were reviewed and selected for relocation to the United States.

Upon hearing the approach of American tanks, Von Braun stepped forward to negotiate. After a few days, Von Braun and 125 of his staff boarded planes bound for the United States. The German scientists were transported to Fort Strong in Massachusetts on September 20, 1945, and were secretly moved to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. By May 1948, the number of German and Austrian missile experts brought to the United States had reached 1,136. They worked under contracts with the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Commerce Departments. Most of these scientists later became American citizens, including Von Braun (1955) and Dornberger.

Redstone Missile

Von Braun’s first job in the United States was to sift through and verify scientific documents collected from Germany, after which he was sent to White Sands, near El Paso in Texas. In this border area of Mexico, Von Braun saw workshops and observatories reminiscent of those in Peenemünde, but he felt disheartened because the U.S. government was not paying attention to the space exploration program with missiles. The V-2 rockets were improved from before, but these instruments could not fly very high and were only used for meteorological research.

By 1947, Von Braun was permitted a brief return to Bavaria. There, he married his 18-year-old cousin, Marie Louise Von Quistorp. To prevent him from being kidnapped by the Soviets, detectives constantly monitored him, even during his honeymoon.

The Korean War broke out. In 1950, the German scientists were relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, and were tasked with developing a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead for the Army. Von Braun became the Technical Director of the U.S. Army ballistic-weapon program.

Von Braun marries Marie Louise Von Quistorp

In 1953, Von Braun’s Redstone missile was launched at Cape Canaveral, giving many people hope that the space exploration program could be realized. In the summer of 1954, Von Braun and a team of engineers traveled to Washington to propose launching a satellite weighing between 2 to 3 kg into space. However, the Navy’s research center assured that they would launch a satellite equipped with a recorder into Earth’s orbit at a cost of only $88,000. It was decided to give the program to the Navy because Vanguard looked better theoretically, and the satellite would be launched during the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958).

Although Von Braun and his team were champions in the field of missiles, they were only allowed to develop medium-range missiles. In September 1956, the Jupiter-C missile flew 5,300 km, surpassing all types of automatic missiles in the United States. Von Braun hoped to use the Jupiter-C missile for satellite launches. He waited.

Suddenly, on August 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched the Sputnik satellite into space, causing panic in the Free World. Von Braun knew that the time had come. He went to Washington D.C. and requested permission to launch a satellite into orbit within 60 days. The Navy’s Vanguard satellite launch had ended in failure. Now it was Von Braun’s turn. On January 31, 1958, at Cape Canaveral, the four-stage Jupiter-C rocket placed the “Explorer I” satellite, weighing 14 kg, into Earth’s orbit. Another rocket developed by Von Braun, the Redstone, successfully launched Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American astronaut, into Earth’s orbit in 1961.

Jupiter-C

In 1958, the United States Congress passed legislation to establish a new federal agency called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The mission of this agency was to research flight techniques within and beyond Earth’s atmosphere, design, test, and operate spacecraft in space, and explore the universe with both unmanned and manned spacecraft, collaborating with other nations on various peaceful space projects. Among the first appointees to NASA was Von Braun, a leading missile expert, who served as the director of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

In the following years, Von Braun contributed to three airborne programs: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, the program that landed on the Moon. Thanks to Von Braun, the colossal Saturn V rocket was developed. This three-stage rocket stood nearly 110 meters (over 360 feet) tall and weighed about 3,000 tons. When launched, the rocket produced a thrust of 7,500,000 pounds, burning over 10 tons of fuel every minute. In 1969, the Saturn V rocket successfully transported astronauts to the Moon. The engineering successes of the Saturn rockets set records for that era.

Toftoy & Von Braun

The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union propelled the field of Interplanetary Aviation forward. Humanity now had the hope of venturing beyond its cramped Earth to explore distant worlds.

In 1975, Von Braun established the National Space Institute. This private organization aimed to study and disseminate scientific activities related to space with public support. Due to his contributions to space technology, Von Braun received numerous awards and honors. He passed away on June 16, 1977, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Von Braun firmly believed that in the near future, humanity could reach Mars, a planet that, in his youth, his mother often pointed out to him through a telescope on clear nights. He had faith in the order of the Universe and believed that humans would reach distant yet beautiful and mysterious worlds.