Final Project

Monique R.

Legislator:  Will Hartnett, Representative

Wernher von Braun. Just the sound of his name brings thoughts of space and exploration to mind. Some people consider him just another man, but they are mistaken. Wernher von Braun was more than a mere man. He became a leader and was successful in following his dreams of exploring space even after his death.

On March 23, 1912, Wernher von Braun was born to Mr. and Mrs. Magnus Maximilian von Braun. As a young boy, von Braun's imagination was fed by reading the novels and writings by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Hermann Oberth. He dreamed of exploring space and did everything he could to learn more about the fascinating subject. Von Braun studied trigonometry and calculus to further his comprehension of rocketry. With rocketry still on his mind, von Braun became a member of Verein fur Raumschiffarht, the amateur Society for Space Travel.

Von Braun went to college and received an aerospace engineering Ph. D in 1934. During the 1930's, he designed rockets for Germany. The V-2 ballistic missile was a result of his experimentation at this time. The V-2 was used to bomb allied troops mainly in Britain during World War II.

As W.W.II drew to an end, von Braun decided to surrender his research (test vehicles and design plans) and 500 of his top scientists to the United States. At the end of the war, von Braun and some of his associates were transported to Fort Bliss, Texas to work on a project named Project Paperclip. The project entailed the designing of rockets for the United States military. The rockets they designed were tested on the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico.

In 1950, von Braun and his "rocket team" were relocated at the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama. He served as the head of the Development Operations Division at the facility. Their new project consisted of designing and building the Jupiter and Redstone ballistic missiles for the army. A Jupiter-C (Juno I) rocket lifted the Explorer satellite into space on January 31, 1958. In 1961, another version of the Redstone rocket carried astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. into a suborbital flight around the Earth.

Von Braun stayed at Redstone for another nine years before being transferred again. On October 21, 1959, he became a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA. He was stationed at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where he became the center's director.

While working at Marshall, von Braun developed the Saturn V rocket. The rocket towered at a height of three hundred sixty-three feet and produced the power of eighty-five Hoover Dams. The Saturn V propelled the Apollo 11 capsule into space, along with its three crew members Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins. The capsule landed on the moon on July 16, 1969.

In 1970, von Braun was transferred to NASA Headquarters and became the Deputy Associate Administrator. He worked with Disney studios in the making of three movies about the space program. He traveled around the United States to promote the space program. When public support declined, von Braun left NASA and became the Engineering and Development Vice President of Fairchild Industries, Inc. On June 15, 1977, von Braun died of cancer.

Wernher von Braun was an extraordinary man. I wish I could have met him.

SOURCES:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Timeline/1958.html

http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/mastery.html

http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/brief/index.html

http://cgi.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/08/recap/3.html

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/kscstory/ch1/ch1.htm

http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/photos/2000/40thannivphotos.htm

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/Academy/History/vonBraun/spaceage.html

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/Academy/History/vonBraun/vonBraun.html

http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/Feb2000/28-e873.html

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo11info.html

Last Updated: 09/07/01