Werner von Braun began to develop rocketry for the needs of the Wehrmacht. After the war, he moved overseas and was actively involved in American space projects. Since childhood, the designer dreamed of flying to distant planets. His name, once closely associated with the creation of military equipment in Nazi Germany, is forever inscribed in the history of space exploration.
From the biography of Werner von Braun
The future designer of rocketry was born on March 23, 1912. The place of his birth is the city of Vizritz (Germany). Nowadays it is the Polish town of Wyzhisk. The elder von Braun was from a family of German aristocrats and had a baronial title. The mother of the future designer also came from a noble family.
Werner received his education at the Berlin Institute of Technology and the University of Berlin. In 1932 he became a bachelor, two years later he received his doctorate.
From a young age, von Braun was fascinated by astronomy, he raved about the idea of flying to distant Mars. It all began with the fact that one day the mother gave the boy a telescope. After that, he seriously took up astronomy. Werner took an active part in the work of the Berlin Society for Interplanetary Communications.
The formation of Werner's personality was influenced by the famous Hermann Obert, who was the first who not only thought about creating a spacecraft, but, with a slide rule in his hands, made reasonable calculations of the design of such an aircraft.
The beginning of work on rocket technology
In 1932, the scientist was recruited to work in the German military department: he was admitted to the Artillery Directorate of the Armed Forces. Here he was engaged in work on the creation of ballistic projectiles that could fly on liquid fuel. In 1937, von Braun headed the rocket research center at Peenemünde, on an island in the Baltic Sea. Under the leadership of a German scientist, the V-2 rocket was created. With these shells, the Nazis subsequently fired at the territory of the Netherlands and Great Britain.
Work in the USA
In early May 1945, von Braun and some of his employees were captured by the American occupation authorities. The German designer arrived in the United States, where he was assigned to lead a project to create weapons for the American army. Development was carried out at Fort Bliss, Texas. Later, Werner headed the rocketry department of the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.
In 1960, von Braun became a member of the leaders of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He also became the first director of the Huntsville Space Flight Center.
Under the leadership of von Braun, the Saturn launch vehicle, which was supposed to be used for flights to the moon, was developed, as well as the Apollo spacecraft.
After some time, Werner became vice president of Fairchild Space Industries, which produced space technology. The designer is rightfully considered the "father" of the entire American space program. His contribution to the development of rocketry is enormous.
In 1972, von Braun left NASA. After that, he lived for only five years. The designer passed away on June 16, 1977 in Virginia (USA). The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.
