Wernher von Braun was one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. The son of a German noble, Magnus Maximilian von Braun, the young spaceflight enthusiast was born in Wilintz, Germany, on March 23, 1912. As a youth he became fascinated with the possibilities of space exploration by reading the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and from the scientific writings of Hermann Oberth, whose 1923 classic study, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (By Rocket to Space), prompted young von Braun to master calculus and trigonometry so he could understand the physics of rocketry.

Even as 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.

While 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 kilometers per hour) and delivered a 2,200-pound (998-kilogram) warhead to a target 500 miles (805 kilometers) 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.

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 defense against them. As a result the V-2s had a terror factor far beyond their capabilities.

By the beginning of 1945, it was obvious to von Braun that Germany would not achieve victory against the Allies, and he began planning for the postwar 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 ballistic missiles.

Because 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 center 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 Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that propelled Americans to the Moon in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Von 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.

In 1970, 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.

-From Launius, Roger D. Frontiers of Space Exploration. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Further Reading:

Bergaust, Erik. Wernher von Braun. Washington, D.C.: National Space Institute, 1976.

Emme, Eugene M., ed. The History of Rocket Technology: Essays on Research, Development, and Utility. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1964.

Neufeld, Michael J. The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: Free Press, 1995.

Ordway, Frederick I., III and Sharpe, Mitchell R. The Rocket Team. New York: Crowell, 1979.

Stuhlinger, Ernst and Ordway, III. Frederick. Wernher von Braun: Crusader for Space, 2 vols. Malabar, Fl.: Krieger, 1994.

Winter, Frank H. Rockets Into Space. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1990.

“Von Braun at Roswell.” http://www.stargate-chronicles.com/vonbraunatroswell.html

“Dr. Wernher von Braun.” http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/vonbraun/welcome.html

“Wernher von Braun.” NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center. http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/index.html

Williams, Robin. “Wernher von Braun.” http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/vonBraun/