Wernher Magnus Maximilian
Freiherr
.svg/240px-Princely_hat_(shaded).svg.png)
Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June
16, 1977) was a German, later American, aerospace engineer,[3] and
space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of
rocket technology in Germany and the father of rocket technology and
space science in the United States.[4]
In his twenties and early thirties, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's
rocket development program. He helped design and develop the V-2
rocket at
Peenemünde

Peenemünde during World War II. Following the war, von
Braun was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600
other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of
Operation Paperclip. He worked for the
United States Army

United States Army on an
intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) program and he developed
the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite
Explorer 1. His group was assimilated into NASA, where he served as
director of the newly formed
Marshall Space Flight Center

Marshall Space Flight Center and as the
chief architect of the
Saturn V

Saturn V super heavy-lift launch vehicle that
propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.[5][6] In 1975, von Braun
received the National Medal of Science. He advocated for a human
mission to Mars.
Contents
1 Early life
2 German career
2.1 Involvement with the Nazi regime
2.1.1 Party membership
2.1.2 Membership in the Allgemeine SS
2.2 Working with the Nazis
2.3 Experiments with rocket aircraft
2.4 Slave labor
2.5 Arrest and release by the Nazi regime
2.6 Surrender to the Americans
3 American career
3.1 U.S. Army career
3.2 Popular concepts for a human presence in space
3.3 Religious conversion
3.4 Concepts for orbital warfare
3.5
NASA

NASA career
3.6 Career after NASA
4 Engineering philosophy
5 Personal life
6 Death
7 Recognition and critique
8 Summary of SS career
8.1 Dates of rank
9 Honors
10 In popular culture
11 Published works
12 See also
13 References
14 Further reading
15 External links
Early life[edit]
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun was born on March 23, 1912 in the small town of
Wirsitz, in the Posen Province, in what was then the German Empire. He
was the second of three sons. He belonged to a noble Lutheran family
and from birth he held the title of
Freiherr
.svg/240px-Princely_hat_(shaded).svg.png)
Freiherr (equivalent to Baron).
The German nobility's legal privileges were abolished in 1919,
although noble titles could still be used as part of the family name.
His father, Magnus
Freiherr
.svg/240px-Princely_hat_(shaded).svg.png)
Freiherr von Braun (1878–1972), was a civil
servant and conservative politician; he served as Minister of
Agriculture in the federal government during the
Weimar

Weimar Republic. His
mother, Emmy von Quistorp (1886–1959), traced her ancestry through
both parents to medieval European royalty and was a descendant of
Philip III of France, Valdemar I of Denmark, Robert III of Scotland,
and Edward III of England.[7][8] Wernher had an older brother, the
West German diplomat Sigismund von Braun, who served as Secretary of
State in the Foreign Office in the 1970s, and a younger brother, also
named Magnus von Braun, who was a rocket scientist and later a senior
executive with Chrysler.[9]
After Wernher's confirmation, his mother gave him a telescope, and he
developed a passion for astronomy. The family moved to Berlin in 1915,
where his father worked at the Ministry of the Interior.[10] Here in
1924, the 12-year-old Wernher, inspired by speed records established
by
Max Valier

Max Valier and
Fritz von Opel

Fritz von Opel in rocket-propelled cars,[11] caused
a major disruption in a crowded street by detonating a toy wagon to
which he had attached fireworks. He was taken into custody by the
local police until his father came to collect him.
Wernher was an accomplished amateur pianist who could play Beethoven
and Bach from memory. He learned to play both the cello and the piano
at an early age and at one time wanted to become a composer. He took
lessons from the composer Paul Hindemith. The few pieces of Wernher's
youthful compositions that exist are reminiscent of Hindemith's
style.[12]:11
Beginning in 1925, Wernher attended a boarding school at Ettersburg
Castle near Weimar, where he did not do well in physics and
mathematics. There he acquired a copy of By
Rocket

Rocket into Planetary
Space (Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen, 1923)[13] by rocket pioneer
Hermann Oberth. In 1928, his parents moved him to the
Hermann-Lietz-Internat (also a residential school) on the East Frisian
North Sea

North Sea island of Spiekeroog. Space travel had always fascinated
Wernher, and from then on he applied himself to physics and
mathematics to pursue his interest in rocket engineering.
In 1930, von Braun attended the
Technische Hochschule

Technische Hochschule Berlin, where he
joined the
Spaceflight

Spaceflight Society (
Verein für Raumschiffahrt or "VfR")
and assisted
Willy Ley
.jpg/500px-Heinz_Haber_Wernher_von_Braun_Willy_Ley_(1954).jpg)
Willy Ley in his liquid-fueled rocket motor tests in
conjunction with Hermann Oberth.[14] In spring 1932, he graduated from
the
Technische Hochschule

Technische Hochschule Berlin (now Technical University of Berlin),
with a diploma in mechanical engineering.[15] His early exposure to
rocketry convinced him that the exploration of space would require far
more than applications of the current engineering technology. Wanting
to learn more about physics, chemistry, and astronomy, von Braun
entered the Friedrich-Wilhelm
University of Berlin

University of Berlin for post-graduate
studies and graduated with a doctorate in physics in 1934.[16] He also
studied at
ETH Zürich

ETH Zürich for a term from June to October 1931.[17]
Although he worked mainly on military rockets in his later years
there, space travel remained his primary interest.
In 1930, von Braun attended a presentation given by Auguste Piccard.
After the talk the young student approached the famous pioneer of
high-altitude balloon flight, and stated to him: "You know, I plan on
traveling to the
Moon

Moon at some time." Piccard is said to have responded
with encouraging words.[18]
He was greatly influenced by Oberth, of whom he said:
Hermann Oberth

Hermann Oberth was the first, who when thinking about the possibility
of spaceships grabbed a slide-rule and presented mathematically
analyzed concepts and designs ... I, myself, owe to him not only the
guiding-star of my life, but also my first contact with the
theoretical and practical aspects of rocketry and space travel. A
place of honor should be reserved in the history of science and
technology for his ground-breaking contributions in the field of
astronautics.[19]
German career[edit]
According to historian Norman Davies, von Braun was only able to
pursue a career as a rocket scientist in Germany due to a "curious
oversight" in the
Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles which did not include rocketry
in its list of weapons forbidden to Germany.[20]
Involvement with the Nazi regime[edit]
Von Braun with Fritz Todt, who utilised forced labour for major works
across occupied Europe
Party membership[edit]
Von Braun had an ambivalent and complex relationship with the Nazi
regime of the Third Reich. He officially applied for membership in the
Nazi Party
.svg/340px-Parteiadler_der_Nationalsozialistische_Deutsche_Arbeiterpartei_(1933–1945).svg.png)
Nazi Party on November 12, 1937, and was issued membership number
5,738,692.[21]:96
Michael J. Neufeld, a widely published author of aerospace history and
chief of the Space History Division at the Smithsonian's National Air
and Space Museum, wrote that ten years after von Braun obtained his
Nazi Party
.svg/340px-Parteiadler_der_Nationalsozialistische_Deutsche_Arbeiterpartei_(1933–1945).svg.png)
Nazi Party membership, he produced an affidavit for the U.S. Army
misrepresenting the year of his membership, saying incorrectly:[21]:96
In 1939, I was officially demanded to join the National Socialist
Party. At this time I was already Technical Director at the Army
Rocket

Rocket Center at
Peenemünde

Peenemünde (Baltic Sea). The technical work carried
out there had, in the meantime, attracted more and more attention in
higher levels. Thus, my refusal to join the party would have meant
that I would have to abandon the work of my life. Therefore, I decided
to join. My membership in the party did not involve any political
activity.
Whether von Braun's error with regard to the year was deliberate or a
simple mistake has never been ascertained, although Neufeld stated
that he might have lied on the affidavit.[21]:96 Neufeld further
wrote:
Von Braun, like other Peenemünders, was assigned to the local group
in Karlshagen; there is no evidence that he did more than send in his
monthly dues. But he is seen in some photographs with the party's
swastika pin in his lapel – it was politically useful to demonstrate
his membership.[21]:96
Von Braun's attitude toward the National Socialist regime in the late
1930s and early 1940s is difficult to understand. By his own account,
he had been so influenced by the early Nazi promise of release from
the post–World War I economic effects, that his patriotic feelings
had increased.[citation needed] In a 1952 memoir article he admitted
that, at that time, he "fared relatively rather well under
totalitarianism".[21]:96–97 Yet, he also wrote that "to us, Hitler
was still only a pompous fool with a
Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin moustache"[22]
and that he perceived him as "another Napoleon" who was "wholly
without scruples, a godless man who thought himself the only god".[23]
Membership in the Allgemeine SS[edit]
Von Braun joined the SS horseback riding school on 1 November 1933 as
an SS-Anwärter. He left the following year.:63 In 1940, he joined the
SS[24]:47[25] and was given the rank of
Untersturmführer

Untersturmführer in the
Allgemeine SS

Allgemeine SS and issued membership number 185,068.:121 In 1947, he
gave the U.S. War Department this explanation:
In spring 1940, one SS-Standartenfuehrer (SS-colonel) Mueller from
Greifswald, a bigger town in the vicinity of Peenemünde, looked me up
in my office ... and told me that Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler had sent
him with the order to urge me to join the SS. I told him I was so busy
with my rocket work that I had no time to spare for any political
activity. He then told me, that ... the SS would cost me no time at
all. I would be awarded the rank of a[n] "Untersturmfuehrer"
(lieutenant) and it were [sic] a very definite desire of Himmler that
I attend his invitation to join.
I asked Mueller to give me some time for reflection. He agreed.
Realizing that the matter was of highly political significance for the
relation between the SS and the Army, I called immediately on my
military superior, Dr. Dornberger. He informed me that the SS had for
a long time been trying to get their "finger in the pie" of the rocket
work. I asked him what to do. He replied on the spot that if I wanted
to continue our mutual work, I had no alternative but to join.
When shown a picture of himself standing behind Himmler, von Braun
claimed to have worn the SS uniform only that one time,[26] but in
2002 a former SS officer at
Peenemünde

Peenemünde told the
BBC

BBC that von Braun
had regularly worn the SS uniform to official meetings. He began as an
Untersturmführer

Untersturmführer (Second lieutenant) and was promoted three times by
Himmler, the last time in June 1943 to SS-
Sturmbannführer

Sturmbannführer (Major).
Von Braun later claimed that these were simply technical promotions
received each year regularly by mail.[27]
Working with the Nazis[edit]
First rank, from left to right, General Dr Walter Dornberger
(partially hidden), General
Friedrich Olbricht

Friedrich Olbricht (with Knight's Cross),
Major Heinz Brandt, and
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun (in civil garment) at
Peenemünde, in March 1941.
In 1933, von Braun was working on his creative doctorate when the
National Socialist German Workers Party
.svg/340px-Parteiadler_der_Nationalsozialistische_Deutsche_Arbeiterpartei_(1933–1945).svg.png)
National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP, or Nazi Party) came to
power in a coalition government in Germany; rocketry was almost
immediately moved onto the national agenda. An artillery captain,
Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for
von Braun, who then worked next to Dornberger's existing solid-fuel
rocket test site at Kummersdorf.
Von Braun was awarded a doctorate in physics[28] (aerospace
engineering) on July 27, 1934, from the
University of Berlin

University of Berlin for a
thesis entitled "About Combustion Tests"; his doctoral supervisor was
Erich Schumann.[21]:61 However, this thesis was only the public part
of von Braun's work. His actual full thesis, Construction,
Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid
Propellant
Rocket

Rocket (dated April 16, 1934) was kept classified by the
German army, and was not published until 1960.[29] By the end of 1934,
his group had successfully launched two liquid fuel rockets that rose
to heights of 2.2 and 3.5 km (2 mi).
At the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicist
Robert H. Goddard's research. Before 1939, German scientists
occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun used Goddard's plans from various journals and
incorporated them into the building of the Aggregat (A) series of
rockets. The A-4 rocket would become well known as the V-2.[30] In
1963, von Braun reflected on the history of rocketry, and said of
Goddard's work: "His rockets ... may have been rather crude by
present-day standards, but they blazed the trail and incorporated many
features used in our most modern rockets and space vehicles."[11]
Goddard confirmed his work was used by von Braun in 1944, shortly
before the Nazis began firing V-2s at England. A V-2 crashed in Sweden
and some parts were sent to an Annapolis lab where Goddard was doing
research for the Navy. If this was the so-called Bäckebo Bomb, it had
been procured by the British in exchange for Spitfires; Annapolis
would have received some parts from them. Goddard is reported to have
recognized components he had invented, and inferred that his
brainchild had been turned into a weapon.[31] Later, von Braun would
comment: "I have very deep and sincere regret for the victims of the
V-2 rockets, but there were victims on both sides ... A war is a war,
and when my country is at war, my duty is to help win that war."[32]
In response to Goddard's claims, von Braun said "at no time in Germany
did I or any of my associates ever see a Goddard patent". This was
independently confirmed.[33] He wrote that claims about him lifting
Goddard's work were the furthest from the truth, noting that Goddard's
paper "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes", which was studied by
von Braun and Oberth, lacked the specificity of liquid-fuel
experimentation with rockets.[33] It was also confirmed that he was
responsible for an estimated 20 patentable innovations related to
rocketry during the
Volksverhetzung era, as well as receiving U.S.
patents after the war concerning the advancement of rocketry.[33]
Documented accounts also stated he provided solutions to a host of
aerospace engineering problems in the 1950s and 60s.[33]
There were no German rocket societies after the collapse of the VfR,
and civilian rocket tests were forbidden by the new Nazi regime. Only
military development was allowed, and to this end, a larger facility
was erected at the village of
Peenemünde

Peenemünde in northern Germany on the
Baltic Sea. Dornberger became the military commander at Peenemünde,
with von Braun as technical director. In collaboration with the
Luftwaffe, the
Peenemünde

Peenemünde group developed liquid-fuel rocket engines
for aircraft and jet-assisted takeoffs. They also developed the
long-range A-4 ballistic missile and the supersonic Wasserfall
anti-aircraft missile.
Schematic of the A4/V2
On December 22, 1942,
Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler ordered the production of the A-4
as a "vengeance weapon", and the
Peenemünde

Peenemünde group developed it to
target London. Following von Braun's July 7, 1943 presentation of a
color movie showing an A-4 taking off, Hitler was so enthusiastic that
he personally made von Braun a professor shortly thereafter.[34] In
Germany at this time, this was an exceptional promotion for an
engineer who was only 31 years old.
By that time, the British and
Soviet intelligence agencies were aware
of the rocket program and von Braun's team at Peenemünde, based on
the intelligence provided by the Polish underground Home Army. Over
the nights of August 17–18, 1943, RAF Bomber Command's Operation
Hydra dispatched raids on the
Peenemünde

Peenemünde camp consisting of 596
aircraft, and dropped 1,800 tons of explosives.[35] The facility was
salvaged and most of the engineering team remained unharmed; however,
the raids killed von Braun's engine designer
Walter Thiel and Chief
Engineer Walther, and the rocket program was delayed.[36][37]
See also: Bombing of
Peenemünde

Peenemünde in World War II
The first combat A-4, renamed the V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2
"Retaliation/Vengeance Weapon 2") for propaganda purposes, was
launched toward England on September 7, 1944, only 21 months after the
project had been officially commissioned. Von Braun's interest in
rockets was specifically for the application of space travel, not for
killing people.[38] After hearing the news from London, he said that
"the rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet."
Satirist
Mort Sahl

Mort Sahl is often credited with mocking von Braun with the
paraphrase "I aim at the stars, but sometimes I hit London."[39] In
fact that line appears in the film I Aim at the Stars, a 1960 biopic
of von Braun.
Experiments with rocket aircraft[edit]
During 1936, von Braun's rocketry team working at Kummersdorf
investigated installing liquid-fuelled rockets in aircraft. Ernst
Heinkel enthusiastically supported their efforts, supplying a He-72
and later two He-112s for the experiments. Later in 1936, Erich
Warsitz was seconded by the RLM to
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun and Ernst
Heinkel, because he had been recognized as one of the most experienced
test pilots of the time, and because he also had an extraordinary fund
of technical knowledge.[40]:30 After he familiarized Warsitz with a
test-stand run, showing him the corresponding apparatus in the
aircraft, he asked: "Are you with us and will you test the rocket in
the air? Then, Warsitz, you will be a famous man. And later we will
fly to the
Moon

Moon – with you at the helm!"[40]:35
A regular He 112
In June 1937, at
Neuhardenberg

Neuhardenberg (a large field about 70 km
(43 mi) east of Berlin, listed as a reserve airfield in the event
of war), one of these latter aircraft was flown with its piston engine
shut down during flight by Warsitz, at which time it was propelled by
von Braun's rocket power alone. Despite a wheels-up landing and the
fuselage having been on fire, it proved to official circles that an
aircraft could be flown satisfactorily with a back-thrust system
through the rear.[40]:51
At the same time, Hellmuth Walter's experiments into hydrogen peroxide
based rockets were leading towards light and simple rockets that
appeared well-suited for aircraft installation. Also the firm of
Hellmuth Walter at Kiel had been commissioned by the RLM to build a
rocket engine for the He 112, so there were two different new rocket
motor designs at Neuhardenberg: whereas von Braun's engines were
powered by alcohol and liquid oxygen, Walter engines had hydrogen
peroxide and calcium permanganate as a catalyst. Von Braun's engines
used direct combustion and created fire, the Walter devices used hot
vapors from a chemical reaction, but both created thrust and provided
high speed.[40]:41 The subsequent flights with the He-112 used the
Walter-rocket instead of von Braun's; it was more reliable, simpler to
operate, and safer for the test pilot, Warsitz.[40]:55
Slave labor[edit]
SS General Hans Kammler, who as an engineer had constructed several
concentration camps, including Auschwitz, had a reputation for
brutality and had originated the idea of using concentration camp
prisoners as slave laborers in the rocket program. Arthur Rudolph,
chief engineer of the
V-2 rocket

V-2 rocket factory at Peenemünde, endorsed this
idea in April 1943 when a labor shortage developed. More people died
building the V-2 rockets than were killed by it as a weapon.[41] Von
Braun admitted visiting the plant at
Mittelwerk

Mittelwerk on many occasions, and
called conditions at the plant "repulsive", but claimed never to have
witnessed any deaths or beatings, although it had become clear to him
by 1944 that deaths had occurred.[42] He denied ever having visited
the
Mittelbau-Dora

Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp itself, where 20,000 died from
illness, beatings, hangings, and intolerable working conditions.[43]
Some prisoners claim von Braun engaged in brutal treatment or approved
of it. Guy Morand, a French resistance fighter who was a prisoner in
Dora, testified in 1995 that after an apparent sabotage attempt, von
Braun ordered a prisoner to be flogged,[44] while Robert Cazabonne,
another French prisoner, claimed von Braun stood by as prisoners were
hanged by chains suspended by cranes.[44]:123–124 However, these
accounts may have been a case of mistaken identity.[45] Former
Buchenwald

Buchenwald inmate Adam Cabala claims that von Braun went to the
concentration camp to pick slave laborers: "[...] also the German
scientists led by Prof.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun were aware of everything
daily. As they went along the corridors, they saw the exhaustion of
the inmates, their arduous work and their pain. Not one single time
did Prof.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun protest against this cruelty during his
frequent stays at Dora. Even the aspect of corpses did not touch him:
On a small area near the ambulance shed, inmates tortured to death by
slave labor and the terror of the overseers were piling up daily. But,
Prof.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun passed them so close that he was almost
touching the corpses".[46]
In Wernher von Braun: Crusader for Space, numerous statements by von
Braun show he was aware of the conditions but felt completely unable
to change them. A friend quotes von Braun speaking of a visit to
Mittelwerk:
It is hellish. My spontaneous reaction was to talk to one of the SS
guards, only to be told with unmistakable harshness that I should mind
my own business, or find myself in the same striped fatigues! ... I
realized that any attempt of reasoning on humane grounds would be
utterly futile.[47]
When asked if von Braun could have protested against the brutal
treatment of the slave laborers, von Braun team member Konrad
Dannenberg (a member of the Nazi party since 1932) told The Huntsville
Times, "If he had done it, in my opinion, he would have been shot on
the spot."[48]
Arrest and release by the Nazi regime[edit]
According to André Sellier, a French historian and survivor of the
Mittelbau-Dora

Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp,
Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler had von Braun come
to his Feldkommandostelle Hochwald HQ in
East Prussia

East Prussia in February
1944.[49] To increase his power-base within the Nazi regime, Himmler
was conspiring to use Kammler to gain control of all German armament
programs, including the V-2 program at Peenemünde.[12]:38–40 He
therefore recommended that von Braun work more closely with Kammler to
solve the problems of the V-2. Von Braun claimed to have replied that
the problems were merely technical and he was confident that they
would be solved with Dornberger's assistance.
Von Braun had been under SD surveillance since October 1943. A report
stated that he and his colleagues Riedel and Gröttrup were said to
have expressed regret at an engineer's house one evening that they
were not working on a spaceship and that they felt the war was not
going well; this was considered a "defeatist" attitude. A young female
dentist who was an SS spy reported their comments.[12]:38–40
Combined with Himmler's false charges that von Braun was a communist
sympathizer and had attempted to sabotage the V-2 program, and
considering that von Braun regularly piloted his government-provided
airplane that might allow him to escape to England, this led to his
arrest by the Gestapo.[12]:38–40
The unsuspecting von Braun was detained on March 14 (or March 15),[50]
1944, and was taken to a
Gestapo

Gestapo cell in Stettin (now Szczecin,
Poland),[12]:38–40 where he was held for two weeks without knowing
the charges against him.
Through the
Abwehr

Abwehr in Berlin, Dornberger obtained von Braun's
conditional release and Albert Speer, Reichsminister for Munitions and
War Production, persuaded Hitler to reinstate von Braun so that the
V-2 program could continue[12]:38–40 or turn into a "V-4 program"
which in their view would be impossible without von Braun's
leadership.[51] In his memoirs, Speer states Hitler had finally
conceded that von Braun was to be "protected from all prosecution as
long as he is indispensable, difficult though the general consequences
arising from the situation."[52]
Von Braun, with his arm in a cast from a car accident, surrendered to
the Americans just before this May 3, 1945 photo.
Surrender to the Americans[edit]
The
Soviet Army

Soviet Army was about 160 km (100 mi) from Peenemünde
in the spring of 1945 when von Braun assembled his planning staff and
asked them to decide how and to whom they should surrender. Unwilling
to go to the Soviets, von Braun and his staff decided to try to
surrender to the Americans. Kammler had ordered relocation of his team
to central Germany; however, a conflicting order from an army chief
ordered them to join the army and fight. Deciding that Kammler's order
was their best bet to defect to the Americans, von Braun fabricated
documents and transported 500 of his affiliates to the area around
Mittelwerk, where they resumed their work. For fear of their documents
being destroyed by the SS, von Braun ordered the blueprints to be
hidden in an abandoned mine shaft in the
Harz

Harz mountain range.[53]
While on an official trip in March, von Braun suffered a complicated
fracture of his left arm and shoulder in a car accident after his
driver fell asleep at the wheel. His injuries were serious, but he
insisted that his arm be set in a cast so he could leave the hospital.
Due to this neglect of the injury he had to be hospitalized again a
month later where his bones had to be re-broken and re-aligned.[53]
In April, as the Allied forces advanced deeper into Germany, Kammler
ordered the engineering team to be moved by train into the town of
Oberammergau

Oberammergau in the
Bavarian Alps

Bavarian Alps where they were closely guarded by
the SS with orders to execute the team if they were about to fall into
enemy hands. However, von Braun managed to convince SS Major Kummer to
order the dispersal of the group into nearby villages so that they
would not be an easy target for U.S. bombers.[53]
Von Braun and a large number of the engineering team subsequently made
it to Austria.[54] On May 2, 1945, upon finding an American private
from the U.S. 44th Infantry Division, von Braun's brother and fellow
rocket engineer, Magnus, approached the soldier on a bicycle, calling
out in broken English: "My name is Magnus von Braun. My brother
invented the V-2. We want to surrender."[9][55] After the surrender,
Wernher spoke to the press:
We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question
as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to
entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than
anything else. We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such
as Germany had just been through, and we felt that only by
surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could
such an assurance to the world be best secured.[56]
The American high command was well aware of how important their catch
was: von Braun had been at the top of the Black List, the code name
for the list of German scientists and engineers targeted for immediate
interrogation by U.S. military experts. On June 19, 1945, two days
before the scheduled handover of the
Nordhausen

Nordhausen area to the Soviets,
U.S. Army Major Robert B. Staver, Chief of the Jet Propulsion Section
of the Research and Intelligence Branch of the U.S. Army Ordnance
Corps in London, and Lt Col R. L. Williams took von Braun and his
department chiefs by Jeep from Garmisch to Munich and then flown to
Nordhausen; on the next day the group was evacuated 40 miles
(64 km) southwest to Witzenhausen, a small town in the American
Zone.[57]
Von Braun was briefly detained at the "Dustbin" interrogation center
at
Kransberg Castle

Kransberg Castle where the elite of the Third Reich's economy,
science and technology were debriefed by U.S. and British intelligence
officials.[58] Initially he was recruited to the U.S. under a program
called Operation Overcast, subsequently known as Operation Paperclip.
There is evidence, however, that British intelligence and scientists
were the first to interview him in depth, eager to gain information
that they knew U.S. officials would deny them. The team included the
young L.S. Snell, then the leading British rocket engineer, later
chief designer of
Rolls-Royce Limited

Rolls-Royce Limited and inventor of the Concorde's
engines. The specific information the British gleaned remained top
secret, both from the Americans and other allies.[citation needed]
American career[edit]
U.S. Army career[edit]
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun at a meeting of NACA's
Special

Special Committee on Space
Technology, 1958
On June 20, 1945, the U.S. Secretary of State approved the transfer of
von Braun and his specialists to America; however, this was not
announced to the public until October 1, 1945.[59] Von Braun was among
those scientists for whom the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency
(JIOA) arguably falsified employment histories and expunged NSDAP
memberships.[citation needed]
The first seven technicians arrived in the United States at New Castle
Army Air Field, just south of Wilmington, Delaware, on September 20,
1945. They were then flown to Boston and taken by boat to the Army
Intelligence Service post at
Fort Strong

Fort Strong in Boston Harbor. Later, with
the exception of von Braun, the men were transferred to Aberdeen
Proving Ground in
Maryland
.svg/200px-Seal_of_Maryland_(reverse).svg.png)
Maryland to sort out the
Peenemünde

Peenemünde documents,
enabling the scientists to continue their rocketry
experiments.[citation needed]
Finally, von Braun and his remaining
Peenemünde

Peenemünde staff (see List of
German rocket scientists in the United States) were transferred to
their new home at Fort Bliss, a large Army installation just north of
El Paso. Von Braun would later write he found it hard to develop a
"genuine emotional attachment" to his new surroundings.[60] His chief
design engineer Walther Reidel became the subject of a December 1946
article "German Scientist Says American Cooking Tasteless; Dislikes
Rubberized Chicken", exposing the presence of von Braun's team in the
country and drawing criticism from
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein and John
Dingell.[60] Requests to improve their living conditions such as
laying linoleum over their cracked wood flooring were rejected.[60]
Von Braun remarked, "at
Peenemünde

Peenemünde we had been coddled, here you were
counting pennies".[60] At Peenemünde, von Braun had thousands of
engineers who answered to him, but was now answering to "pimply"
26-year-old Major Jim Hamill who possessed an undergraduate degree in
engineering.[60] His loyal Germans still addressed him as Herr
Professor, but Hamill addressed him as Wernher and never bothered to
respond to von Braun's request for more materials, and every proposal
for new rocket ideas was dismissed.[60]
Von Braun's badge at ABMA (1957)
While there, they trained military, industrial, and university
personnel in the intricacies of rockets and guided missiles. As part
of the Hermes project, they helped refurbish, assemble, and launch a
number of V-2s that had been shipped from Germany to the White Sands
Proving Ground in New Mexico. They also continued to study the future
potential of rockets for military and research applications. Since
they were not permitted to leave
Fort Bliss

Fort Bliss without military escort,
von Braun and his colleagues began to refer to themselves only
half-jokingly as "PoPs" – "Prisoners of Peace".[61]
In 1950, at the start of the Korean War, von Braun and his team were
transferred to Huntsville, Alabama, his home for the next 20 years.
Between 1952 and 1956,[62] von Braun led the Army's rocket development
team at Redstone Arsenal, resulting in the Redstone rocket, which was
used for the first live nuclear ballistic missile tests conducted by
the United States. He personally witnessed this historic launch and
detonation.[63] Work on the Redstone led to development of the first
high-precision inertial guidance system on the Redstone rocket.[64]
As director of the Development Operations Division of the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency, von Braun, with his team, then developed the
Jupiter-C, a modified Redstone rocket.[65] The
Jupiter-C

Jupiter-C successfully
launched the West's first satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958.
This event signaled the birth of America's space program.
Despite the work on the Redstone rocket, the 12 years from 1945 to
1957 were probably some of the most frustrating for von Braun and his
colleagues. In the Soviet Union,
Sergei Korolev

Sergei Korolev and his team of
scientists and engineers plowed ahead with several new rocket designs
and the
Sputnik

Sputnik program, while the American government was not very
interested in von Braun's work or views and only embarked on a very
modest rocket-building program. In the meantime, the press tended to
dwell on von Braun's past as a member of the SS and the slave labor
used to build his V-2 rockets.[citation needed]
Popular concepts for a human presence in space[edit]
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Repeating the pattern he had established during his earlier career in
Germany, von Braun – while directing military rocket development in
the real world – continued to entertain his engineer-scientist's
dream of a future in which rockets would be used for space
exploration. However, instead of risking being sacked, he now was
increasingly in a position to popularize these ideas. The May 14,
1950, headline of
The Huntsville Times

The Huntsville Times ("Dr. von Braun Says Rocket
Flights Possible to Moon") might have marked the beginning of these
efforts. Von Braun's ideas rode a publicity wave that was created by
science fiction movies and stories.
Von Braun with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960
In 1952, von Braun first published his concept of a manned space
station in a
Collier's Weekly

Collier's Weekly magazine series of articles titled "Man
Will Conquer Space Soon!". These articles were illustrated by the
space artist
Chesley Bonestell

Chesley Bonestell and were influential in spreading his
ideas. Frequently, von Braun worked with fellow German-born space
advocate and science writer
Willy Ley
.jpg/500px-Heinz_Haber_Wernher_von_Braun_Willy_Ley_(1954).jpg)
Willy Ley to publish his concepts, which,
unsurprisingly, were heavy on the engineering side and anticipated
many technical aspects of space flight that later became reality.
The space station (to be constructed using rockets with recoverable
and reusable ascent stages) would be a toroid structure, with a
diameter of 250 feet (76 m); this built on the concept of a
rotating wheel-shaped station introduced in 1929 by Herman Potočnik
in his book The Problem of Space Travel – The
Rocket

Rocket Motor. The
space station would spin around a central docking nave to provide
artificial gravity, and would be assembled in a 1,075-mile
(1,730 km) two-hour, high-inclination
Earth orbit

Earth orbit allowing
observation of essentially every point on Earth on at least a daily
basis. The ultimate purpose of the space station would be to provide
an assembly platform for manned lunar expeditions. More than a decade
later, the movie version of 2001: A Space Odyssey would draw heavily
on the design concept in its visualization of an orbital space
station.
Von Braun envisaged these expeditions as very large-scale
undertakings, with a total of 50 astronauts travelling in three
huge spacecraft (two for crew, one primarily for cargo), each
49 m (160.76 ft) long and 33 m (108.27 ft) in
diameter and driven by a rectangular array of 30 rocket
propulsion engines.[66] Upon arrival, astronauts would establish a
permanent lunar base in the
Sinus Roris

Sinus Roris region by using the emptied
cargo holds of their craft as shelters, and would explore their
surroundings for eight weeks. This would include a 400 km
(249 mi) expedition in pressurized rovers to the crater Harpalus
and the
Mare Imbrium

Mare Imbrium foothills.
Walt Disney

Walt Disney and von Braun, seen in 1954 holding a model of his
passenger ship, collaborated on a series of three educational films.
At this time, von Braun also worked out preliminary concepts for a
manned mission to Mars that used the space station as a staging point.
His initial plans, published in
The Mars Project

The Mars Project (1952), had envisaged
a fleet of 10 spacecraft (each with a mass of 3,720 metric tons),
three of them unmanned and each carrying one 200-ton winged lander[66]
in addition to cargo, and nine crew vehicles transporting a total of
70 astronauts. Gigantic as this mission plan was, its engineering
and astronautical parameters were thoroughly calculated. A later
project was much more modest, using only one purely orbital cargo ship
and one crewed craft. In each case, the expedition would use
minimum-energy Hohmann transfer orbits for its trips to Mars and back
to Earth.
Before technically formalizing his thoughts on human spaceflight to
Mars, von Braun had written a science fiction novel on the subject,
set in the year 1980. However, the manuscript was rejected by no fewer
than 18 publishers.[67] Von Braun later published small portions
of this opus in magazines, to illustrate selected aspects of his Mars
project popularizations. The complete manuscript, titled Project MARS:
A Technical Tale, did not appear as a printed book until December
2006.[68]
In the hope that its involvement would bring about greater public
interest in the future of the space program, von Braun also began
working with
Walt Disney

Walt Disney and the Disney studios as a technical
director, initially for three television films about space
exploration. The initial broadcast devoted to space exploration was
Man in Space, which first went on air on March 9, 1955, drawing 40
million viewers.[60][69][70]
Later (in 1959) von Braun published a short booklet, condensed from
episodes that had appeared in
This Week Magazine

This Week Magazine before—describing
his updated concept of the first manned lunar landing.[71] The
scenario included only a single and relatively small spacecraft—a
winged lander with a crew of only two experienced pilots who had
already circumnavigated the
Moon

Moon on an earlier mission. The
brute-force direct ascent flight schedule used a rocket design with
five sequential stages, loosely based on the Nova designs that were
under discussion at this time. After a night launch from a Pacific
island, the first three stages would bring the spacecraft (with the
two remaining upper stages attached) to terrestrial escape velocity,
with each burn creating an acceleration of 8–9 times standard
gravity. Residual propellant in the third stage would be used for the
deceleration intended to commence only a few hundred kilometers above
the landing site in a crater near the lunar north pole. The fourth
stage provided acceleration to lunar escape velocity, while the fifth
stage would be responsible for a deceleration during return to the
Earth to a residual speed that allows aerocapture of the spacecraft
ending in a runway landing, much in the way of the Space Shuttle. One
remarkable feature of this technical tale is that the engineer Wernher
von Braun anticipated a medical phenomenon that would become apparent
only years later: being a veteran astronaut with no history of serious
adverse reactions to weightlessness offers no protection against
becoming unexpectedly and violently spacesick.
Religious conversion[edit]
In the first half of his life, von Braun was a nonpracticing,
"perfunctory" Lutheran, whose affiliation was rather nominal and not
taken seriously.[72] As described by
Ernst Stuhlinger

Ernst Stuhlinger and Frederick I.
Ordway III: “Throughout his younger years, von Braun did not show
signs of religious devotion, or even an interest in things related to
the church or to biblical teachings. In fact, he was known to his
friends as a 'merry heathen' (fröhlicher Heide)."[73] Nevertheless,
in 1946,[74]:469 he reluctantly attended church in El Paso, Texas, and
underwent a religious conversion to evangelical Christianity.[75] In
an unnamed religious magazine he stated:
One day in Fort Bliss, a neighbor called and asked if I would like to
go to church with him. I accepted, because I wanted to see if the
American church was just a country club as I'd been led to expect.
Instead, I found a small, white frame building ... in the hot Texas
sun on a browned-grass lot ... Together, these people make a live,
vibrant community. This was the first time I really understood that
religion was not a cathedral inherited from the past, or a quick
prayer at the last minute. To be effective, a religion has to be
backed up by discipline and effort.
— von Braun[74]:229–230
On the motives behind this conversion,
Michael J. Neufeld is of the
opinion that he turned to religion "to pacify his own conscience",[76]
whereas
University of Southampton

University of Southampton scholar Kendrick Oliver comments
that von Braun was presumably moved "by a desire to find a new
direction for his life after the moral chaos of his service for the
Third Reich".[77] Having "concluded one bad bargain with the devil,
perhaps now he felt a need to have God securely at his side".[78]
Later in life, he joined an Episcopal congregation,[75] and became
increasingly religious.[79] He publicly spoke and wrote about the
complementarity of science and religion, the afterlife of the soul,
and his belief in God.[80][81] He stated, "Through science man strives
to learn more of the mysteries of creation. Through religion he seeks
to know the Creator."[82] He was interviewed by the Assemblies of God
pastor C. M. Ward, as stating, "The farther we probe into space, the
greater my faith."[83] In addition, he met privately with evangelist
Billy Graham

Billy Graham and with the pacifist leader Martin Luther King Jr..[84]
Von Braun with President Kennedy at
Redstone Arsenal

Redstone Arsenal in 1963
Von Braun with the F-1 engines of the
Saturn V

Saturn V first stage at the U.S.
Space and
Rocket

Rocket Center
Still with his rocket models, von Braun is pictured in his new office
at
NASA

NASA headquarters in 1970
Concepts for orbital warfare[edit]
Von Braun developed and published his space station concept during the
very "coldest" time of the Cold War, when the U.S. government for
which he worked put the containment of the
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union above
everything else. The fact that his space station – if armed with
missiles that could be easily adapted from those already available at
this time – would give the United States space superiority in both
orbital and orbit-to-ground warfare did not escape him. In his popular
writings, von Braun elaborated on them in several of his books and
articles, but he took care to qualify such military applications as
"particularly dreadful". This much less peaceful aspect of von Braun's
"drive for space" has been reviewed by
Michael J. Neufeld from the
Space History Division of the
National Air and Space Museum

National Air and Space Museum in
Washington.[85]
NASA

NASA career[edit]
Von Braun during
Apollo 11

Apollo 11 launch
The U.S. Navy had been tasked with building a rocket to lift
satellites into orbit, but the resulting
Vanguard rocket

Vanguard rocket launch system
was unreliable. In 1957, with the launch of
Sputnik

Sputnik 1, a growing
belief within the United States existed that it was lagging behind the
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union in the emerging Space Race. American authorities then
chose to use von Braun and his German team's experience with missiles
to create an orbital launch vehicle.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun had such an
idea originally proposed in 1954, but it was denied at the time.[60]
NASA

NASA was established by law on July 29, 1958. One day later, the 50th
Redstone rocket was successfully launched from
Johnston Atoll

Johnston Atoll in the
south Pacific as part of Operation Hardtack I. Two years later, NASA
opened the
Marshall Space Flight Center

Marshall Space Flight Center at
Redstone Arsenal

Redstone Arsenal in
Huntsville, and the
Army Ballistic Missile Agency

Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) development
team led by von Braun was transferred to NASA. In a face-to-face
meeting with
Herb York

Herb York at the Pentagon, von Braun made it clear he
would go to
NASA

NASA only if development of the Saturn was allowed to
continue.[86] Presiding from July 1960 to February 1970, von Braun
became the center's first director.[citation needed]
Von Braun's early years at
NASA

NASA were not without some disappointments.
One of those was the "infamous four-inch flight" during which the
first unmanned Mercury-Redstone rocket only rose a few inches before
settling back onto the launch pad. The launch failure was later
determined to be the result of a "power plug with one prong shorter
than the other because a worker filed it to make it fit". Because of
the difference in the length of one prong, the launch system detected
the difference in the power disconnection as a "cut-off signal to the
engine". The system stopped the launch, and the incident created a
"nadir of morale in Project Mercury".[citation needed]
After the flight of
Mercury-Redstone 2

Mercury-Redstone 2 in January 1961 experienced a
string of problems, von Braun insisted on one more test before the
Redstone could be deemed man-rated. His overly cautious nature brought
about clashes with other people involved in the program, who argued
that MR-2's technical issues were simple and had been resolved shortly
after the flight. He overruled them, so a test mission involving a
Redstone on a boilerplate capsule was flown successfully in March. Von
Braun's stubbornness was blamed for the inability of the U.S. to
launch a manned space mission before the Soviet Union, which ended up
putting the first man in space the following month.[citation needed]
Charles W. Mathews, von Braun, George Mueller, and Lt. Gen. Samuel C.
Phillips in the
Launch Control Center

Launch Control Center following the successful Apollo
11 liftoff on July 16, 1969
The Marshall Center's first major program was the development of
Saturn rockets to carry heavy payloads into and beyond Earth orbit.
From this, the
Apollo program
.jpg/480px-Skylab_(SL-4).jpg)
Apollo program for manned
Moon

Moon flights was developed.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun initially pushed for a flight engineering concept
that called for an
Earth orbit

Earth orbit rendezvous technique (the approach he
had argued for building his space station), but in 1962, he converted
to the lunar orbit rendezvous concept that was subsequently
realized.[87] During Apollo, he worked closely with former Peenemünde
teammate, Kurt H. Debus, the first director of the Kennedy Space
Center. His dream to help mankind set foot on the
Moon

Moon became a
reality on July 16, 1969, when a Marshall-developed
Saturn V

Saturn V rocket
launched the crew of
Apollo 11

Apollo 11 on its historic eight-day mission. Over
the course of the program,
Saturn V

Saturn V rockets enabled six teams of
astronauts to reach the surface of the Moon.
During the late 1960s, von Braun was instrumental in the development
of the U.S. Space and
Rocket

Rocket Center in Huntsville. The desk from which
he guided America's entry in the space race remains on display there.
He also was instrumental in the launching of the experimental
Applications Technology Satellite. He travelled to
India

India and hoped
that the program would be helpful for bringing a massive educational
television project to help the poorest people in that country.[88][89]
During the local summer of 1966–67, von Braun participated in a
field trip to Antarctica, organized for him and several other members
of top
NASA

NASA management.[90] The goal of the field trip was to
determine whether the experience gained by U.S. scientific and
technological community during the exploration of Antarctic wastelands
would be useful for the manned exploration of space. Von Braun was
mainly interested in management of the scientific effort on Antarctic
research stations, logistics, habitation, and life support, and in
using the barren Antarctic terrain like the glacial dry valleys to
test the equipment that one day would be used to look for signs of
life on Mars and other worlds.
In an internal memo dated January 16, 1969,[91] von Braun had
confirmed to his staff that he would stay on as a center director at
Huntsville to head the Apollo Applications Program. He referred to
this time as a moment in his life when he felt the strong need to
pray, stating "I certainly prayed a lot before and during the crucial
Apollo flights".[92] A few months later, on occasion of the first Moon
landing, he publicly expressed his optimism that the
Saturn V

Saturn V carrier
system would continue to be developed, advocating manned missions to
Mars in the 1980s.[93]
Nonetheless, on March 1, 1970, von Braun and his family relocated to
Washington, DC, when he was assigned the post of NASA's Deputy
Associate Administrator for Planning at
NASA

NASA Headquarters. After a
series of conflicts associated with the truncation of the Apollo
program, and facing severe budget constraints, von Braun retired from
NASA

NASA on May 26, 1972. Not only had it become evident by this time that
NASA

NASA and his visions for future U.S. space flight projects were
incompatible, but also it was perhaps even more frustrating for him to
see popular support for a continued presence of man in space wane
dramatically once the goal to reach the
Moon

Moon had been accomplished.
Von Braun and William R. Lucas, the first and third Marshall Space
Flight Center directors, viewing a
Spacelab

Spacelab model in 1974
Von Braun also developed the idea of a Space Camp that would train
children in fields of science and space technologies, as well as help
their mental development much the same way sports camps aim at
improving physical development.[21]:354–355
Career after NASA[edit]
After leaving NASA, von Braun became Vice President for Engineering
and Development at the aerospace company Fairchild Industries in
Germantown, Maryland, on July 1, 1972.
In 1973, during a routine physical examination, von Braun was
diagnosed with kidney cancer, which could not be controlled with the
medical techniques available at the time.[94] Von Braun continued his
work to the extent possible, which included accepting invitations to
speak at colleges and universities, as he was eager to cultivate
interest in human spaceflight and rocketry, particularly his desire to
encourage the next generation of aerospace engineers.
Von Braun helped establish and promote the National Space Institute, a
precursor of the present-day National Space Society, in 1975, and
became its first president and chairman. In 1976, he became scientific
consultant to Lutz Kayser, the CEO of OTRAG, and a member of the
Daimler-Benz

Daimler-Benz board of directors. However, his deteriorating health
forced him to retire from Fairchild on December 31, 1976. When the
1975
National Medal of Science

National Medal of Science was awarded to him in early 1977, he
was hospitalized, and unable to attend the White House ceremony.
Engineering philosophy[edit]
Von Braun's insistence on further tests after
Mercury-Redstone 2

Mercury-Redstone 2 flew
higher than planned has been identified as contributing to the Soviet
Union's success in launching the first human in space.[95] The
Mercury-Redstone BD

Mercury-Redstone BD flight was successful, but took up the launch slot
that could have put
Alan Shepard

Alan Shepard into space three weeks ahead of Yuri
Gagarin. His Soviet counterpart
Sergei Korolev

Sergei Korolev insisted on two
successful flights with dogs before risking Gagarin's life on a manned
attempt. The second test flight took place one day after the
Mercury-Redstone BD

Mercury-Redstone BD mission.[21]: 1
Von Braun took a very conservative approach to engineering, designing
with ample safety factors and redundant structure. This became a point
of contention with other engineers, who struggled to keep vehicle
weight down so that payload could be maximized. As noted above, his
excessive caution likely led to the U.S. losing the race to put a man
into space with the Soviets. Krafft Ehricke likened von Braun's
approach to building the Brooklyn Bridge.[96]:208 Many at NASA
headquarters jokingly referred to Marshall as the "Chicago Bridge and
Iron Works", but acknowledged that the designs worked.[97] The
conservative approach paid off when a fifth engine was added to the
Saturn C-4, producing the Saturn V. The C-4 design had a large
crossbeam that could easily absorb the thrust of an additional
engine.[21]:371
Personal life[edit]
Maria von Braun, wife of Wernher von Braun
Von Braun had a charismatic personality and was known as a ladies'
man. As a student in Berlin, he would often be seen in the evenings in
the company of two girlfriends at once.[21]:63 He later had a
succession of affairs within the secretarial and computer pool at
Peenemünde.[21]:92–94
In January 1943, von Braun became engaged to Dorothee Brill, a
physical education teacher in Berlin, and sought permission from the
SS Race and Settlement Office to marry. However, the engagement was
broken due to his mother's opposition.[21]:146–147 Later in 1943,
while preparing V-2 launch sites in northeastern France, von Braun had
an affair in Paris with a French woman, who was imprisoned for
collaboration after the War and became destitute.[21]:147–148
During his stay at Fort Bliss, von Braun proposed marriage to Maria
Luise von Quistorp (born (1928-06-10)June 10, 1928), his maternal
first cousin, in a letter to his father. On March 1, 1947, having
received permission to go back to Germany and return with his bride,
he married her in a Lutheran church in Landshut, Germany. Shortly
after he converted to Evangelical Christianity, his bride and he, as
well as his father and mother, returned to New York on March 26, 1947.
On December 9, 1948, the von Brauns' first daughter, Iris Careen, was
born at
Fort Bliss

Fort Bliss Army Hospital.[65] The von Brauns had two more
children, Margrit Cécile in 1952 and Peter Constantine in 1960.
On April 15, 1955, von Braun became a naturalized citizen of the
United States.
Death[edit]
Grave of
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun in Ivy Hill Cemetery (Alexandria,
Virginia), 2008.
On June 16, 1977,
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun died of pancreatic cancer in
Alexandria, Virginia, at the age of 65.[98][99] He was buried at the
Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.
Von Braun's gravestone mentions Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the
glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." (KJV)[100]
Recognition and critique[edit]
In 1970,
Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville, Alabama honored von Braun's years of service with
a series of events including the unveiling of a plaque in his honor.
Pictured (l–r), his daughter Iris, wife Maria, U.S. Sen. John
Sparkman, Alabama Gov. Albert Brewer, von Braun, son Peter, and
daughter Margrit.
Apollo program
.jpg/480px-Skylab_(SL-4).jpg)
Apollo program director Sam Phillips was quoted as saying that he did
not think that the United States would have reached the
Moon

Moon as
quickly as it did without von Braun's help. Later, after discussing it
with colleagues, he amended this to say that he did not believe the
United States would have reached the
Moon

Moon at all.[12]:167
The crater von Braun on the
Moon

Moon is named after him.
Von Braun received a total of 12 honorary doctorates, among them, on
January 8, 1963, one from the
Technical University of Berlin

Technical University of Berlin from
which he had graduated.
Von Braun was responsible for the creation of the Research Institute
at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. As a result of his vision,
the university is one of the leading universities in the nation for
NASA-sponsored research. The building housing the university's
Research Institute was named in his honor, Von Braun Research Hall, in
2000.
Several German cities (Bonn, Neu-Isenburg, Mannheim, Mainz), and
dozens of smaller towns have named streets after Wernher von Braun.
The
Von Braun Center

Von Braun Center (built 1975) in Huntsville is named in von
Braun's honor.
Von Braun Astronomical Society in Huntsville was founded as the Rocket
City Astronomical Association by von Braun and was later renamed after
him
Scrutiny of von Braun's use of forced labor at
Mittelwerk

Mittelwerk intensified
again in 1984 when Arthur Rudolph, one of his top affiliates from the
A-4/V2 through to the Apollo projects, left the United States and was
forced to renounce his citizenship in place of the alternative of
being tried for war crimes.[101]
A science- and engineering-oriented Gymnasium in Friedberg, Bavaria
was named after
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun in 1979. In response to rising
criticism, a school committee decided in 1995, after lengthy
deliberations, to keep the name but "to address von Braun's ambiguity
in the advanced history classes". In 2012, Nazi concentration camp
survivor David Salz gave a speech in Friedberg, calling out for the
public to "Do everything to make this name disappear from this
school!".[102][103] In February 2014, the school was finally renamed
"Staatliches Gymnasium Friedberg" and distanced itself from the name
von Braun, citing he was "no role-model for our pupils".
An avenue in the Annadale section of Staten Island, New York was named
after him in 1977.
Von Braun also was voted into the U.S. Space and
Rocket

Rocket Center Hall of
Fame, 2007
Summary of SS career[edit]
SS number: 185,068
Nazi Party
.svg/340px-Parteiadler_der_Nationalsozialistische_Deutsche_Arbeiterpartei_(1933–1945).svg.png)
Nazi Party number: 5,738,692[21]:96
Dates of rank[edit]
SS-Anwärter: November 1, 1933 (Candidate; received rank upon joining
SS Riding School)
SS-Mann: July 1934 (Private)
(left SS after graduation from the school; commissioned in 1940 with
date of entry backdated to 1934)
SS-Untersturmführer: May 1, 1940 (Second Lieutenant)
SS-Obersturmführer: November 9, 1941 (First Lieutenant)
SS-Hauptsturmführer: November 9, 1942 (Captain)
SS-Sturmbannführer: June 28, 1943 (Major)[28]
Honors[edit]
War Merit Cross, First Class with Swords in 1943
Knights Cross of the
War Merit Cross

War Merit Cross in 1944
Elected Honorary Fellow of the
British Interplanetary Society

British Interplanetary Society in
1949[104]
Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of
Germany in 1959
Elliott Cresson Medal

Elliott Cresson Medal in 1962[105]
Langley Gold Medal

Langley Gold Medal in 1967[106]
NASA

NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1969
Inducted into the
International Space Hall of Fame in 1969
Wilhelm Exner Medal

Wilhelm Exner Medal in 1969.[2]
National Medal of Science

National Medal of Science in 1975
Werner von Siemens Ring in 1975
Civitan International

Civitan International World Citizenship Award in 1970[107]
In popular culture[edit]
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Film and television Von Braun has been featured in a number of movies
and television shows or series:
"Man in Space" and "Man and the Moon", episodes of Disneyland which
originally aired on March 9, 1955 and December 28, 1955, respectively.
I Aim at the Stars

I Aim at the Stars (1960), also titled
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun and Ich
greife nach den Sternen ("I Reach for the Stars"); von Braun played by
Curd Jürgens, his wife Maria played by Victoria Shaw.[108] Although
it was said that satirist
Mort Sahl

Mort Sahl suggested the subtitle "But
Sometimes I Hit London", the line appears in the film itself, spoken
by actor James Daly who plays the cynical American press officer.
From the Earth to the
Moon

Moon (TV, 1998): von Braun played by Norbert
Weisser.
October Sky

October Sky (1999): this film portrays U.S. rocket scientist Homer
Hickam, who as a teenager admired von Braun (played by Joe Digaetano).
The film's title, October Sky, is an anagram of the autobiography it
was based on:
Rocket

Rocket Boys.
Space Race

Space Race (TV,
BBC

BBC co-production with NDR (Germany), Channel One TV
(Russia) and National Geographic TV (USA), 2005): von Braun played by
Richard Dillane.
The Lost Von Braun, a documentary by Aron Ranen. Interviews with Ernst
Stuhlinger, Konrad Dannenberg, Karl Sendler, Alex Baum, Eli Rosenbaum
(DOJ) and von Braun's
NASA

NASA secretary Bonnie Holmes.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun –
Rocket

Rocket Man for War and Peace A three part
(part1, part 2, part 3) documentary – in English – from the German
International channel DW-TV.[109] Original German version Wernher von
Braun – Der Mann für die Wunderwaffen by the Mitteldeutscher
Rundfunk.
Several fictional characters have been modeled on von Braun:
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
(1964): Dr Strangelove is usually held to be based at least partly on
von Braun.[110]
In print media:
In Warren Ellis's graphic novel Ministry of Space, von Braun is a
supporting character, settling in Britain after World War II, and
being essential for the realization of the British space program.
In Jonathan Hickman's comic book series The Manhattan Projects, von
Braun is a major character.
In literature:
The Good German

The Good German by Joseph Kanon. Von Braun and other scientists are
said to have been implicated in the use of slave labor at Peenemünde;
their transfer to the U.S. forms part of the narrative.
Space by James Michener. Von Braun and other German scientists are
brought to the U.S. and form a vital part of the U.S. efforts to reach
space.
Gravity's Rainbow

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. The novel involves British
intelligence attempting to avert and predict
V-2 rocket

V-2 rocket attacks. The
work even includes a gyroscopic equation for the V2. The first portion
of the novel, "Beyond The Zero", begins with a quotation from von
Braun: "Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is
transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to
teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual
existence after death."
V-S Day by
Allen Steele

Allen Steele is a 2014 alternate history novel in which the
space race occurs during
World War II

World War II between teams led by Robert H.
Goddard and von Braun.
Moonglow by
Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon (2016) includes a fictionalized description
of the search for and capture of Von Braun by the US Army, and his
role in the Nazi V-2 program and subsequently in the US space program.
In theatre:
Rocket

Rocket City, Alabam', a stage play by Mark Saltzman, weaves von
Braun's real life with a fictional plot in which a young
Jewish

Jewish woman
in
Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville, Alabama becomes aware of his Nazi past and tries to
inspire awareness and outrage. Von Braun is a character in the
play.[111]
In music:
Infinite Journey (1962),
Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach and Apollo program
rocket sounds album by various artists including Henry Mazer, which
features von Braun as a narrator.[112]
"Wernher von Braun" (1965):[113] A song written and performed by Tom
Lehrer for an episode of NBC's American version of the
BBC

BBC TV show
That Was The Week That Was; the song was later included in Lehrer's
albums
That Was The Year That Was

That Was The Year That Was and The Remains of Tom Lehrer. It
was a satire on what some saw as von Braun's cavalier attitude toward
the consequences of his work in Nazi Germany.[114]
The Last Days of Pompeii (1991): A rock opera by Grant Hart's
post-
Hüsker Dü

Hüsker Dü alternative rock group Nova Mob, in which von Braun
features as a character. The album includes a song called "Wernher von
Braun".
Published works[edit]
Proposal for a Workable Fighter with
Rocket

Rocket Drive. July 6, 1939.
The proposed vertical take-off interceptor[115] for climbing to
35,000 ft in 60 seconds was rejected by the
Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe in the
autumn of 1941[37]:258 for the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet[21]:151 and
never produced. (The differing
Bachem Ba 349

Bachem Ba 349 was produced during the
1944 Emergency Fighter Program.)
'Survey' of Previous Liquid
Rocket

Rocket Development in Germany and Future
Prospects. May 1945. [116]
A Minimum Satellite Vehicle Based on Components Available from
Developments of the Army Ordnance Corps. September 15, 1954. It would
be a blow to U.S. prestige if we did not [launch a satellite]
first. [116]
The Mars Project, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, (1953). With
Henry J. White, translator.
Arthur C. Clarke, ed. (1967). German Rocketry, The Coming of the Space
Age. New York: Meredith Press.
First Men to the Moon, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York (1958).
Portions of work first appeared in This Week Magazine.
Daily Journals of Werner von Braun, May 1958 – March 1970. March
1970. [116]
History of Rocketry & Space Travel, New York, Crowell (1975). With
Frederick I. Ordway III.
Estate of Wernher von Braun; Ordway III, Frederick I & Dooling,
David Jr. (1985) [1975]. Space Travel: A History (2nd ed.). New York:
Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-181898-4.
The Rocket's Red Glare, Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press, (1976). With
Frederick I. Ordway III.
Project Mars: A Technical Tale, Apogee Books, Toronto (2006). A
previously unpublished science fiction story by von Braun. Accompanied
by paintings from
Chesley Bonestell

Chesley Bonestell and von Braun's own technical
papers on the proposed project.
The Voice of Dr. Wernher von Braun, Apogee Books, Toronto (2007). A
collection of speeches delivered by von Braun over the course of his
career.
See also[edit]
Biography portal
Physics

Physics portal
Spaceflight

Spaceflight portal
World War II

World War II portal
Robert Esnault-Pelterie
German inventors and discoverers
List of coupled cousins
Pedro Paulet
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
References[edit]
^ Ivy Hill Cemetery, Alexandria, VA., Wilson, Scott. Resting Places:
The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle
Location 48952). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle
Edition.
^ a b Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade
Association. ÖGV. Austria.
^ Neufeld, Michael. Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War
(First ed.). Vintage Books. pp. xv. Although Wernher von Braun
got a doctorate in physics in 1934, he never worked a day in his life
thereafter as a scientist. He was an engineer and a manager of
engineers, and he used that vocabulary when he was talking to his
professional peers.
^ Werner von Braun: History's Most Controversial Figure?, Al Jazeera
^ "SP-4206 Stages to Saturn, Chapter 9". history.nasa.gov. Retrieved
March 8, 2015.
^ "Biography of Wernher von Braun". MSFC History Office.
NASA

NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center.
^ "Von Braun, Wernher", Erratik Institut. Retrieved 4 February 2011
^ "Dr. Wernher von Braun'i mälestuseks", Füüsikainstituut.
Retrieved 4 February 2011
^ a b Spires, Shelby G. (June 27, 2003). "Von Braun's brother dies;
aided surrender". The Huntsville Times. p. 1A. Magnus von Braun,
the brother of rocket pioneer
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun who worked in
Huntsville from 1950–1955, died Saturday in Phoenix, Ariz. He was
84. Though not as famous as his older brother, who died in 1977,
Magnus von Braun

Magnus von Braun made the first contact with U.S. Army troops to
arrange the German rocket team's surrender at the end of World War
II.
^ Magnus
Freiherr
.svg/240px-Princely_hat_(shaded).svg.png)
Freiherr von Braun, Von Ostpreußen bis Texas. Erlebnisse und
zeitgeschichtliche Betrachtungen eines Ostdeutschen. Stollhamm 1955
^ a b "Recollections of Childhood: Early Experiences in Rocketry as
Told by Werner von Braun 1963". MSFC History Office.
NASA

NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center.
^ a b c d e f g Ward (2005). Dr. Space: The Life of Werner von Braun.
ISBN 978-1-591-14926-2.
^ OCLC 6026491
^ Various sources such as The Nazi Rocketeers (ISBN 0811733874 pp
5–8) list the young
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun as joining the VfR as an
apprentice to Willy Ley, one of the three founders. Later when Ley
fled Germany because he was a Jew, von Braun took over the leadership
of the Verein and changed its activity to military development.
^ "
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun biography". Biography.com. Retrieved March 1,
2014.
^ "Early Experiences in Rocketry as Told by Werner von Braun 1963".
History.msfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
^ https://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/recollect-childhood.html
^ As related by Auguste's son
Jacques Piccard
.jpg/500px-Jacques_Piccard_(1979).jpg)
Jacques Piccard to fellow deep-sea
explorer Hans Fricke, cited in: Fricke H. Der Fisch, der aus der
Urzeit kam, pp. 23–24. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2010.
ISBN 978-3-423-34616-0 (in German)
^ Leo Nutz; Elmar Wild (December 28, 1989). "Oberth-museum.org".
Oberth-museum.org. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
^ Davies, Norman (2006). Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory.
London: Macmillan. p. 416. ISBN 9780333692851.
OCLC 70401618.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Neufeld, Michael (2007). Von Braun
Dreamer of Space Engineer of War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
ISBN 978-0-307-26292-9.
^ Spangenburg & Moser. 2009. Wernher von Braun, Revised Edition.
Infobase Publishing. p. 33
^ See Ward (2005), Chapter 5: "Encounters with Hitler."
^ Ward, Bob (2009). Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun. US Naval
Institute Press. ISBN 978-1591149279.
^ "
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun FBI file".
^ "Dr. Space" pp. 35 "It had been thought that he publicly wore his
uniform with swastika armband just once, during one of two formal..."
^ Dr. Space, p. 35. "
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun in SS uniform". The Reformation
Online.
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Problem der Flüssigkeitsrakete. Raketentechnik und
Raumfahrtforschung, Sonderheft 1 (1960), Stuttgart, Germany.
^ Weisstein, Eric Wolfgang (ed.). "Robert Goddard".
ScienceWorld.
^ "The Man Who Opened the Door to Space". Popular Science. May
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Engineer of War. Vintage. p. 351
^ a b c d "Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun", Bob Ward. Naval
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^ Middlebrook, Martin (1982). The
Peenemünde

Peenemünde Raid: The Night of
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^ a b Dornberger, Walter (1952). V2—Der Schuss ins Weltall.
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1954). p. 164.
^ Neufeld, Michael J. 2008. Wernher von Braun: Dreamer of Space,
Engineer of War. Vintage. p. 184
^ Morrow, Lance (August 3, 1998). "The
Moon

Moon and the Clones". Time.
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Rocket

Rocket Man's Dark Side". Time.
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^ a b Biddle, Wayne (2009). Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun,
the Third Reich, and the Space Race. W. W. Norton &
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^
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Concentration Camp Labor: Questions of Moral, Political, and Criminal
Responsibility", German Studies Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 57–78
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historischer Abriss, p. 100, Westkreuz Verlag, Berlin
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2011.
^ Roop, Lee (October 4, 2002). "Aide says von Braun wasn't able to
stop slave horrors; Objection would have gotten rocket pioneer shot,
Dannenberg says". The Huntsville Times. Archived from the original on
October 26, 2002.
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of the Nazi Slave Labor Camp That Secretly Manufactured V-2 Rockets.
Chicago, IL: Ivan R Dee. ISBN 1-56663-511-X.
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Rocket

Rocket Development from 1927–1945". MSFC
History Office.
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Institute Press. Ch. 5
^ Speer, Albert (1995). Inside the Third Reich. London: Weidenfeld
& Nicolson. pp. 501–502. ISBN 9781842127353.
^ a b c Cadbury, Deborah (2005). Space Race.
BBC

BBC Worldwide Limited.
ISBN 0-00-721299-2.
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 28, 2015.
Retrieved May 8, 2015. Capture of Werner von Braun by the 324th
Regiment Anti-tank Company
^ McDougall, Walter A. (1985). ...The Heavens and the Earth: A
Political History of the Space Age. New York: Basic Books. p. 44.
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^ Arts & Entertainment, Biography (1959–1961 series). Mike
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press statement.
^ McGovern, J (1964). Crossbow and Overcast. New York: W. Morrow.
p. 182.
^ Speer, Albert (2001). Schlie, Ulrich, ed. Alles, was ich weiß. F.A.
Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung. p. 12. ISBN 3-7766-2092-7.
^ "Outstanding German Scientists Being Brought to U.S." War Department
press release. V2Rocket.com. October 1, 1945. Archived from the
original on March 8, 2010. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status
unknown (link)
^ a b c d e f g h Matthew Brzezinski (2007) Red
Moon

Moon Rising: Sputnik
and the Hidden Rivalries That Ignited the Space Age, pp. 84–92,
Henry Holt, New York ISBN 978-0-80508-147-3
^ 1951-, Neufeld, Michael J.,. Von Braun : dreamer of space,
engineer of war (First Vintage books ed.). New York. p. 218.
ISBN 9780525435914. OCLC 982248820.
^ "
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun Encyclopedia of Alabama". Encyclopedia of
Alabama. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
^ REDSTONE ROCKET, HARDTACK-TEAK TEST, AUGUST 1958. YouTube. October
3, 2011.
^ Bucher, G. C.; Mc Call, J. C.; Ordway, F. I., III; Stuhlinger, E.
"From Peenemuende to Outer Space. Commemorating the Fiftieth Birthday
of Wernher von Braun".
NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server. NTRS. Retrieved
October 11, 2011. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ a b "Reach for the Stars". TIME Magazine. February 17, 1958.
^ a b Woodfill, Jerry (November 30, 2004). "Gallery of Wernher von
Braun Moonship Sketches". The Space Educator's Handbook.
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NASA Johnson
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maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
^ Bergaust, Erik (1976). Wernher von Braun: The authoritative and
definitive biographical profile of the father of modern space flight
(Hardcover). National Space Institute. ISBN 0-917680-01-4.
^
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun (2006) Project Mars : a technical tale,
Apogee Books, Burlington, Ontario ISBN 978-0-97382-033-1
^ Ley, Willy (October 1955). "For Your Information". Galaxy.
p. 60. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
^ Pat Williams, Jim Denney (2004) How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the
Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life, p. 237, Health Communications
Inc. ISBN 978-0-75730-231-2
^ "
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun (January 2000) "First Men to the Moon". Reprint
by Henry Holt & Co., Inc. ISBN 978-0-03030-295-4
^ Neufeld, Michael J. (2008) Wernher von Braun: Dreamer of Space,
Engineer of War, Vintage. p. 4; 230
^ Stuhlinger, Ernst & Ira Ordway, Frederick. 1994. Wernher von
Braun, crusader for space: a biographical memoir. Krieger Pub, p. 270
^ a b Neufeld, Michael J. (2007) Wernher von Braun: Dreamer of Space,
Engineer of War, Knoff, NY ISBN 978-0-30726-292-9
^ a b Mallon, Thomas (Oct. 22, 2007) "
Rocket

Rocket Man", The New Yorker,
Access date: January 8, 2015.
^ Walker, Mark (2008) "A 20th-Century Faust" Archived April 2, 2015,
at the Wayback Machine., American Scientist, Access: January 8, 2015
^ Oliver, Kendrick (2012) To Touch the Face of God: The Sacred, the
Profane, and the American Space Program, 1957–1975, p. 23, Johns
Hopkins University Press ISBN 978-1-42140-788-3
^ Oliver, 2012, p. 24
^ Stuhlinger, Ernst & Ira Ordway, Frederick. 1994. Wernher von
Braun, crusader for space: a biographical memoir. Krieger Pub, p. 270:
"Those who knew him through the 1960s and 1970s noticed during these
years that a new element began to surface in his conversations, and
also in his speeches and his writings: a growing interest in religious
thought."
^ von Braun, Wernher (1963) "My Faith: A Space-Age Scientist Tells Why
He Must Believe in God", (February 10, 1963) The American Weekly, p.
2, New York: The Hearst Corporation.
^ See von Braun's speeches in The voice of Dr. Wernher Von Brain: An
Anthology. Apogee Books Publication; ed. by Irene E. Powell-Willhite:
These touch "a variety of topics, including education, the cold war,
religion, and the space program".
^ See the same article by von Braun, Wernher, published as "Science
and religion", in Rome Daily American, September 13, 1966. Available
in New Age Frontiersn (Oct. 1966) United Family, Vol- II, No. 10.
^ See "The Farther We Probe into Space, the Greater my Faith":
C.M.Ward’s account of His Interview with Dr. Warner von Braun (1966)
Springfield, MO: Assemblies of God, 17 pp. Mini-pamphlet.
^ Ward, Bob (2013) Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun, Ch. 1:
"The Accursed Blessing", Naval Institute Press OCLC 857079205
^ Neufeld MJ: "Space superiority: Wernher von Braun's campaign for a
nuclear-armed space station, 1946–1956". Space Policy 2006;
22:52–62.
^ "Stages to Saturn – The Saturn Building Blocks – THE ABMA
TRANSFER". NASA.
^ "Concluding Remarks by Dr.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun about Mode Selection
for the Lunar Landing Program" (PDF). Lunar Orbit Rendezvous File.
NASA

NASA Historical Reference Collection. June 7, 1962.
^ Spangenburg & Moser. 2009. Wernher von Braun, Revised Edition.
Infobase Publishing. p. 129-130
^ See: Dr.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun talks about ATSF satellite project
^ "Space Man's Look at Antarctica". Popular Science, Vol. 190, No. 5,
May 1967, pp. 114–116.
^ von Braun, Wernher (January 16, 1969). "Adjustment to Marshall
Organization, Announcement No. 4" (PDF). MSFC History Office. NASA
Marshall Space Flight Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on June
21, 2007.
^ Bergaust, Erik. 1976. Wernher von Braun: The Authoritative and
Definitive Biographical Profile of the Father of Modern Space Flight.
National Space Institute. p. 117
^ "Next, Mars and Beyond". Time. July 25, 1969. Retrieved June 21,
2007. Even as man prepared to take his first tentative
extraterrestrial steps, other celestial adventures beckoned him. The
shape and scope of the post-Apollo manned space program remained hazy,
and a great deal depends on the safe and successful outcome of Apollo
11. Well before the lunar flight was launched, though,
NASA

NASA was
casting eyes on targets far beyond the Moon. The most inviting: the
earth's close, and probably most hospitable, planetary neighbor. Given
the same energy and dedication that took them to the Moon, says
Wernher von Braun, Americans could land on Mars as early as
1982.
^ German sources mostly specify the cancer as renal, while American
biographies unanimously just mention cancer. The time when von Braun
learned about the disease is generally given as between 1973 and 1976.
The characteristics of renal cell carcinoma, which has a bad prognosis
even today, do not rule out either time limit.
^ Launius, Roger (2002). To Reach the Higher Frontier: A History of
U.S. Launch Vehicles. University of Kentucky.
ISBN 0-8131-2245-7.
^ Sloop, John L. (1978). Liquid hydrogen as a propulsion fuel,
1945–1959 (PDF). The
NASA

NASA history series. SP-4404.
^ "To the Moon". NOVA. July 13, 1999.
^ "Von Braun, Who Helped Put Men on Moon, Dies at 65: German-Born
Scientist Succumbs to Pancreatic Cancer; Was Pioneer in Space Rocket
Technology". Los Angeles Times. June 17, 1977. p. A2.
^ "Wernher von Braun,
Rocket

Rocket Pioneer, Dies; Wernher von Braun, Pioneer
in Space Travel and Rocketry, Dies at 65". New York Times. June 18,
1977. Wernher von Braun, the master rocket builder and pioneer of
space travel, died of cancer Thursday morning. He was 65 years
old. access-date= requires url= (help)
^ "Psalm 19:1". Bible Gateway.
^ Winterstein, William E., Sr. (March 1, 2005). Secrets Of The Space
Age. Robert D. Reed Publishers. ISBN 1-931741-49-2.
^ Rother, Marcel (March 22, 2012). "Gymnasium Friedberg: Ein Ort, der
das Herz zittern lässt" [Friedberg Gymnasium: A place that can make
the heart tremble]. Augsburger Allgemeine (in German). Augsburg:
Presse-Druck- und Verlags-GmbH. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
^ Mayr, Stefan (March 23, 2012). "Streit um
Wernher-von-Braun-Gymnasium "Tut alles, damit dieser Name
verschwindet"" [Dispute over the
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun Gymnasium "Do
everything to make this name disappear"]. Süddeutschen Zeitung (in
German). Munich: Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH. Retrieved December 1,
2015.
^ "Prof Dr Wernher von Braun". Journal of the British Interplanetary
Society. 9 (2). March 1950.
^ Astronautical and Aeronautical Events of 1962 – Report of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the Committee on
Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives (PDF), U.S.
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14, 2014
^ "Dr von Braun Honoured" (PDF). Flight International. Iliffe
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^ Armbrester, Margaret E. (1992). The Civitan Story. Birmingham, AL:
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^ "
I Aim at the Stars

I Aim at the Stars (1960)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved August
10, 2010.
^ "DW-TV". Dw-world.de. June 25, 2011. Retrieved August 15,
2013.
^ Neufield, Von Braun, p. 406. Dr Strangelove was widely held to be a
composite of Edward Teller, Herman Kahn, and von Braun; but only von
Braun shared Strangelove's Nazi past.
^ "MadKap Productions presents
Rocket

Rocket City, Alabam' ". Skokie
[Illinois] Theatre and MadKap Productions. 2017. Retrieved November
29, 2017.
^ "Florida Symphony Orchestra And Bach Festival Choir - Journey To
Infinity". Discogs. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
^
Tom Lehrer

Tom Lehrer (December 1, 2008). "Wernher von Braun". Youtube.com.
Retrieved August 15, 2013.
^ "Stop clapping, this is serious". Sydney Morning Herald. March 1,
2003. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
^ Klee, Ernst; Merk, Otto (1963). The Birth of the Missile:The Secrets
of Peenemünde. Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag (English translation
1965). pp. 89, 95.
^ a b c Ordway, Frederick I, III; Sharpe, Mitchell R (1979). The
Rocket

Rocket Team. Apogee Books Space Series 36. New York: Thomas Y.
Crowell. pp. 308, 425, 509. ISBN 1-894959-00-0.
Further reading[edit]
Biddle, Wayne (2009). Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the
Third Reich, and the Space Race. W. W. Norton.
ISBN 978-0-393-05910-6.
Bilstein, Roger (2003). Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of
the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles. University Press of Florida.
ISBN 978-0-813-02691-6.
Dunar, Andrew J; Waring, Stephen P (1999). "Power to Explore: a
History of Marshall Space Flight Center, 1960–1990". Washington, DC:
United States Government Printing Office.
ISBN 0-16-058992-4.
Freeman, Marsha (1993). "How we got to the Moon: The Story of the
German Space Pioneers (Paperback)". 21st Century Science Associates
(October 1993). ISBN 0-9628134-1-9.
Lasby, Clarence G (1971). "Project Paperclip: German Scientists and
the Cold War". New York, NY: Atheneum. ASIN B0006CKBHY.
Neufeld, Michael J (1994). "The
Rocket

Rocket and the Reich:
Peenemünde

Peenemünde and
the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era". New York: Free Press.
ISBN 0-02-922895-6.
Neufeld, Michael J (2007). "Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of
War". New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-26292-9.
Ordway, Frederick I., III (2003). "The
Rocket

Rocket Team: Apogee Books Space
Series 36 (Apogee Books Space Series) (Hardcover)". Collector's Guide
Publishing Inc.; Har/DVD edition (September 1, 2003).
ISBN 1-894959-00-0.
Petersen, Michael B. (2009). Missiles for the Fatherland: Peenemuende,
National Socialism and the V-2 missile. Cambridge Centennial of
Flight. New York: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-88270-5. OCLC 644940362.
Stuhlinger, Ernst (1996). "Wernher von Braun: Crusader for Space".
Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company.
ISBN 0-89464-980-9.
Tompkins, Phillip K. (1993). Organizational Communication Imperatives:
Lessons of the Space Program. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0195329667.
Ward, Bob (2005). Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun. Annapolis,
MD, United States: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN 978-1-59114-927-9.
Willhite, Irene E. (2007). The Voice of Dr. Wernher von Braun: An
Anthology (Apogee Books Space Series). Collector's Guide Publishing,
Inc. ISBN 978-1894959643.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wernher von Braun.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Wernher von Braun
Audiopodcast on Astrotalkuk.org
BBC

BBC journalist Reg Turnill talking in
2011 about his personal memories of and interviews with Dr Wernher von
Braun.
The capture of von Braun and his men – At the U.S. 44th Infantry
Division website
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun page –
Marshall Space Flight Center

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) History
Office
"The Disney – von Braun Collaboration and its Influence on Space
Exploration" – by Mike Wright, MSFC
Coat-of-arms of Dr. Wernher von Braun
Remembering Von Braun – by Anthony Young – The Space Review
Monday, July 10, 2006
The
Mittelbau-Dora

Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial
V2rocket.com
60th anniversary digital reprinting of Colliers Space Series, Houston
Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
CIA documents on Dr.
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun on the Internet Archive
FBI Records: The Vault - Wernher VonBraun files at vault.fbi.gov
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NASA's George C.
Marshall Space Flight Center

Marshall Space Flight Center (Huntsville, Alabama)
Directors
von Braun
Rees
Petrone
Lucas
Thompson
Lee
Bridwell
Littles
Griner*
Stephenson
King
Lightfoot
Goldman*
Henderson*
Scheuermann
Projects
Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle Propulsion
International Space Station
Chandra X-ray Observatory
Gravity Probe B
Project Constellation
Ares I
Ares V
Orion
NRHP sites
Neutral Buoyancy Simulator
Propulsion and Structural Test Facility
Redstone Test Stand
Saturn V

Saturn V Dynamic Test Stand
Saturn V

Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle
Other
Operation Paperclip
Von Braun Team
ABMA
Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Rocket
U.S. Space &
Rocket

Rocket Center
* acting director only
v
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Systems engineering
Subfields
Aerospace engineering
Biological systems engineering
Configuration management
Earth systems engineering and management
Electrical engineering
Enterprise systems engineering
Performance engineering
Reliability engineering
Safety engineering
Processes
Requirements engineering
Functional specification
System

System integration
Verification and validation
Design review
Concepts
Business process
System
System

System lifecycle
V-Model
Systems development life cycle
Tools
Decision-making
Function modelling
IDEF
Optimization
Quality function deployment
System

System dynamics
Systems Modeling Language
Systems analysis
Systems modeling
Work breakdown structure
People
James S. Albus
Ruzena Bajcsy
Benjamin S. Blanchard
Wernher von Braun
Kathleen Carley
Harold Chestnut
Wolt Fabrycky
Barbara Grosz
Arthur David Hall III
Derek Hitchins
Robert E. Machol
Radhika Nagpal
Simon Ramo
Joseph Francis Shea
Katia Sycara
Manuela M. Veloso
John N. Warfield
Related fields
Control engineering
Computer engineering
Industrial engineering
Operations research
Project management
Quality management
Risk management
Software engineering
Category
v
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United States
National Medal of Science

National Medal of Science laureates
Behavioral and social science
1960s
1964: Roger Adams
Othmar H. Ammann
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Neal Elgar Miller
1980s
1986: Herbert A. Simon
1987: Anne Anastasi
George J. Stigler
1988: Milton Friedman
1990s
1990: Leonid Hurwicz
Patrick Suppes
1991: Robert W. Kates
George A. Miller
1992: Eleanor J. Gibson
1994: Robert K. Merton
1995: Roger N. Shepard
1996: Paul Samuelson
1997: William K. Estes
1998: William Julius Wilson
1999: Robert M. Solow
2000s
2000: Gary Becker
2001: George Bass
2003: R. Duncan Luce
2004: Kenneth Arrow
2005: Gordon H. Bower
2008: Michael I. Posner
2009: Mortimer Mishkin
2010s
2011: Anne Treisman
2014: Robert Axelrod
2015: Albert Bandura
Biological sciences
1960s
1963: C. B. van Niel
1964: Marshall W. Nirenberg
1965: Francis P. Rous
George G. Simpson
Donald D. Van Slyke
1966: Edward F. Knipling
Fritz Albert Lipmann
William C. Rose
Sewall Wright
1967: Kenneth S. Cole
Harry F. Harlow
Michael Heidelberger
Alfred H. Sturtevant
1968: Horace Barker
Bernard B. Brodie
Detlev W. Bronk
Jay Lush
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
1969: Robert Huebner
Ernst Mayr
1970s
1970: Barbara McClintock
Albert B. Sabin
1973: Daniel I. Arnon
Earl W. Sutherland Jr.
1974: Britton Chance
Erwin Chargaff
James V. Neel
James Augustine Shannon
1975: Hallowell Davis
Paul Gyorgy
Sterling B. Hendricks
Orville Alvin Vogel
1976: Roger Guillemin
Keith Roberts Porter
Efraim Racker
E. O. Wilson
1979: Robert H. Burris
Elizabeth C. Crosby
Arthur Kornberg
Severo Ochoa
Earl Reece Stadtman
George Ledyard Stebbins
Paul Alfred Weiss
1980s
1981: Philip Handler
1982: Seymour Benzer
Glenn W. Burton
Mildred Cohn
1983: Howard L. Bachrach
Paul Berg
Wendell L. Roelofs
Berta Scharrer
1986: Stanley Cohen
Donald A. Henderson
Vernon B. Mountcastle
George Emil Palade
Joan A. Steitz
1987: Michael E. DeBakey
Theodor O. Diener
Harry Eagle
Har Gobind Khorana
Rita Levi-Montalcini
1988: Michael S. Brown
Stanley Norman Cohen
Joseph L. Goldstein
Maurice R. Hilleman
Eric R. Kandel
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
1989: Katherine Esau
Viktor Hamburger
Philip Leder
Joshua Lederberg
Roger W. Sperry
Harland G. Wood
1990s
1990: Baruj Benacerraf
Herbert W. Boyer
Daniel E. Koshland Jr.
Edward B. Lewis
David G. Nathan
E. Donnall Thomas
1991: Mary Ellen Avery
G. Evelyn Hutchinson
Elvin A. Kabat
Salvador Luria
Paul A. Marks
Folke K. Skoog
Paul C. Zamecnik
1992: Maxine Singer
Howard Martin Temin
1993: Daniel Nathans
Salome G. Waelsch
1994: Thomas Eisner
Elizabeth F. Neufeld
1995: Alexander Rich
1996: Ruth Patrick
1997: James Watson
Robert A. Weinberg
1998: Bruce Ames
Janet Rowley
1999: David Baltimore
Jared Diamond
Lynn Margulis
2000s
2000: Nancy C. Andreasen
Peter H. Raven
Carl Woese
2001: Francisco J. Ayala
Mario R. Capecchi
Ann Graybiel
Gene E. Likens
Victor A. McKusick
Harold Varmus
2002: James E. Darnell
Evelyn M. Witkin
2003: J. Michael Bishop
Solomon H. Snyder
Charles Yanofsky
2004: Norman E. Borlaug
Phillip A. Sharp
Thomas E. Starzl
2005: Anthony S. Fauci
Torsten N. Wiesel
2006: Rita R. Colwell
Nina Fedoroff
Lubert Stryer
2007: Robert J. Lefkowitz
Bert W. O'Malley
2008: Francis S. Collins
Elaine Fuchs
J. Craig Venter
2009: Susan L. Lindquist
Stanley B. Prusiner
2010s
2010: Ralph L. Brinster
Shu Chien
Rudolf Jaenisch
2011: Lucy Shapiro
Leroy Hood
Sallie Chisholm
2014: May Berenbaum
Bruce Alberts
2015: Stanley Falkow
Rakesh K. Jain
Mary-Claire King
Simon Levin
Chemistry
1980s
1982: F. Albert Cotton
Gilbert Stork
1983: Roald Hoffmann
George C. Pimentel
Richard N. Zare
1986: Harry B. Gray
Yuan Tseh Lee
Carl S. Marvel
Frank H. Westheimer
1987: William S. Johnson
Walter H. Stockmayer
Max Tishler
1988: William O. Baker
Konrad E. Bloch
Elias J. Corey
1989: Richard B. Bernstein
Melvin Calvin
Rudolph A. Marcus
Harden M. McConnell
1990s
1990: Elkan Blout
Karl Folkers
John D. Roberts
1991: Ronald Breslow
Gertrude B. Elion
Dudley R. Herschbach
Glenn T. Seaborg
1992: Howard E. Simmons Jr.
1993: Donald J. Cram
Norman Hackerman
1994: George S. Hammond
1995: Thomas Cech
Isabella L. Karle
1996: Norman Davidson
1997: Darleane C. Hoffman
Harold S. Johnston
1998: John W. Cahn
George M. Whitesides
1999: Stuart A. Rice
John Ross
Susan Solomon
2000s
2000: John D. Baldeschwieler
Ralph F. Hirschmann
2001: Ernest R. Davidson
Gábor A. Somorjai
2002: John I. Brauman
2004: Stephen J. Lippard
2006: Marvin H. Caruthers
Peter B. Dervan
2007: Mostafa A. El-Sayed
2008: Joanna Fowler
JoAnne Stubbe
2009: Stephen J. Benkovic
Marye Anne Fox
2010s
2010: Jacqueline K. Barton
Peter J. Stang
2011: Allen J. Bard
M. Frederick Hawthorne
2014: Judith P. Klinman
Jerrold Meinwald
2015: A. Paul Alivisatos
Geraldine L. Richmond
Engineering sciences
1960s
1962: Theodore von Kármán
1963: Vannevar Bush
John Robinson Pierce
1964: Charles S. Draper
1965: Hugh L. Dryden
Clarence L. Johnson
Warren K. Lewis
1966: Claude E. Shannon
1967: Edwin H. Land
Igor I. Sikorsky
1968: J. Presper Eckert
Nathan M. Newmark
1969: Jack St. Clair Kilby
1970s
1970: George E. Mueller
1973: Harold E. Edgerton
Richard T. Whitcomb
1974: Rudolf Kompfner
Ralph Brazelton Peck
Abel Wolman
1975: Manson Benedict
William Hayward Pickering
Frederick E. Terman
Wernher von Braun
1976: Morris Cohen
Peter C. Goldmark
Erwin Wilhelm Müller
1979: Emmett N. Leith
Raymond D. Mindlin
Robert N. Noyce
Earl R. Parker
Simon Ramo
1980s
1982: Edward H. Heinemann
Donald L. Katz
1983: William Redington Hewlett
George M. Low
John G. Trump
1986: Hans Wolfgang Liepmann
T. Y. Lin
Bernard M. Oliver
1987: R. Byron Bird
H. Bolton Seed
Ernst Weber
1988: Daniel C. Drucker
Willis M. Hawkins
George W. Housner
1989: Harry George Drickamer
Herbert E. Grier
1990s
1990: Mildred Dresselhaus
Nick Holonyak Jr.
1991: George H. Heilmeier
Luna B. Leopold
H. Guyford Stever
1992: Calvin F. Quate
John Roy Whinnery
1993: Alfred Y. Cho
1994: Ray W. Clough
1995: Hermann A. Haus
1996: James L. Flanagan
C. Kumar N. Patel
1998: Eli Ruckenstein
1999: Kenneth N. Stevens
2000s
2000: Yuan-Cheng B. Fung
2001: Andreas Acrivos
2002: Leo Beranek
2003: John M. Prausnitz
2004: Edwin N. Lightfoot
2005: Jan D. Achenbach
Tobin J. Marks
2006: Robert S. Langer
2007: David J. Wineland
2008: Rudolf E. Kálmán
2009: Amnon Yariv
2010s
2010: Shu Chien
2011: John B. Goodenough
2014: Thomas Kailath
Mathematical, statistical, and computer sciences
1960s
1963: Norbert Wiener
1964: Solomon Lefschetz
H. Marston Morse
1965: Oscar Zariski
1966: John Milnor
1967: Paul Cohen
1968: Jerzy Neyman
1969: William Feller
1970s
1970: Richard Brauer
1973: John Tukey
1974: Kurt Gödel
1975: John W. Backus
Shiing-Shen Chern
George Dantzig
1976: Kurt Otto Friedrichs
Hassler Whitney
1979: Joseph L. Doob
Donald E. Knuth
1980s
1982: Marshall Harvey Stone
1983: Herman Goldstine
Isadore Singer
1986: Peter Lax
Antoni Zygmund
1987: Raoul Bott
Michael Freedman
1988: Ralph E. Gomory
Joseph B. Keller
1989: Samuel Karlin
Saunders Mac Lane
Donald C. Spencer
1990s
1990: George F. Carrier
Stephen Cole Kleene
John McCarthy
1991: Alberto Calderón
1992: Allen Newell
1993: Martin David Kruskal
1994: John Cocke
1995: Louis Nirenberg
1996: Richard Karp
Stephen Smale
1997: Shing-Tung Yau
1998: Cathleen Synge Morawetz
1999: Felix Browder
Ronald R. Coifman
2000s
2000: John Griggs Thompson
Karen K. Uhlenbeck
2001: Calyampudi R. Rao
Elias M. Stein
2002: James G. Glimm
2003: Carl R. de Boor
2004: Dennis P. Sullivan
2005: Bradley Efron
2006: Hyman Bass
2007: Leonard Kleinrock
Andrew J. Viterbi
2009: David B. Mumford
2010s
2010: Richard A. Tapia
S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan
2011: Solomon W. Golomb
Barry Mazur
2014: Alexandre Chorin
David Blackwell
2015: Michael Artin
Physical sciences
1960s
1963: Luis W. Alvarez
1964: Julian Schwinger
Harold Clayton Urey
Robert Burns Woodward
1965: John Bardeen
Peter Debye
Leon M. Lederman
William Rubey
1966: Jacob Bjerknes
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Henry Eyring
John H. Van Vleck
Vladimir K. Zworykin
1967: Jesse Beams
Francis Birch
Gregory Breit
Louis Hammett
George Kistiakowsky
1968: Paul Bartlett
Herbert Friedman
Lars Onsager
Eugene Wigner
1969: Herbert C. Brown
Wolfgang Panofsky
1970s
1970: Robert H. Dicke
Allan R. Sandage
John C. Slater
John A. Wheeler
Saul Winstein
1973: Carl Djerassi
Maurice Ewing
Arie Jan Haagen-Smit
Vladimir Haensel
Frederick Seitz
Robert Rathbun Wilson
1974: Nicolaas Bloembergen
Paul Flory
William Alfred Fowler
Linus Carl Pauling
Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer
1975: Hans A. Bethe
Joseph O. Hirschfelder
Lewis Sarett
Edgar Bright Wilson
Chien-Shiung Wu
1976: Samuel Goudsmit
Herbert S. Gutowsky
Frederick Rossini
Verner Suomi
Henry Taube
George Uhlenbeck
1979: Richard P. Feynman
Herman Mark
Edward M. Purcell
John Sinfelt
Lyman Spitzer
Victor F. Weisskopf
1980s
1982: Philip W. Anderson
Yoichiro Nambu
Edward Teller
Charles H. Townes
1983: E. Margaret Burbidge
Maurice Goldhaber
Helmut Landsberg
Walter Munk
Frederick Reines
Bruno B. Rossi
J. Robert Schrieffer
1986: Solomon J. Buchsbaum
H. Richard Crane
Herman Feshbach
Robert Hofstadter
Chen-Ning Yang
1987: Philip Abelson
Walter Elsasser
Paul C. Lauterbur
George Pake
James A. Van Allen
1988: D. Allan Bromley
Paul Ching-Wu Chu
Walter Kohn
Norman F. Ramsey
Jack Steinberger
1989: Arnold O. Beckman
Eugene Parker
Robert Sharp
Henry Stommel
1990s
1990: Allan M. Cormack
Edwin M. McMillan
Robert Pound
Roger Revelle
1991: Arthur L. Schawlow
Ed Stone
Steven Weinberg
1992: Eugene M. Shoemaker
1993: Val Fitch
Vera Rubin
1994: Albert Overhauser
Frank Press
1995: Hans Dehmelt
Peter Goldreich
1996: Wallace S. Broecker
1997: Marshall Rosenbluth
Martin Schwarzschild
George Wetherill
1998: Don L. Anderson
John N. Bahcall
1999: James Cronin
Leo Kadanoff
2000s
2000: Willis E. Lamb
Jeremiah P. Ostriker
Gilbert F. White
2001: Marvin L. Cohen
Raymond Davis Jr.
Charles Keeling
2002: Richard Garwin
W. Jason Morgan
Edward Witten
2003: G. Brent Dalrymple
Riccardo Giacconi
2004: Robert N. Clayton
2005: Ralph A. Alpher
Lonnie Thompson
2006: Daniel Kleppner
2007: Fay Ajzenberg-Selove
Charles P. Slichter
2008: Berni Alder
James E. Gunn
2009: Yakir Aharonov
Esther M. Conwell
Warren M. Washington
2010s
2011: Sidney Drell
Sandra Faber
Sylvester James Gates
2014: Burton Richter
Sean C. Solomon
2015: Shirley Ann Jackson
v
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NASA
Policy and history
History
NACA

NACA (1915)
National Aeronautics and Space Act
.svg/280px-Great_Seal_of_the_United_States_(obverse).svg.png)
National Aeronautics and Space Act (1958)
Space Task Group

Space Task Group (1958)
Paine (1986)
Rogers (1986)
Ride (1987)
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative (1989)
Augustine (1990)
U.S. National Space Policy (1996)
CFUSAI (2002)
CAIB (2003)
Vision for Space Exploration

Vision for Space Exploration (2004)
Aldridge (2004)
Augustine (2009)
General
Space Race
Administrator and Deputy Administrator
Chief Scientist
Astronaut

Astronaut Corps
Budget
Spin-off technologies
NASA

NASA TV
NASA

NASA Social
Launch Services Program
Kennedy Space Center
Vehicle Assembly Building
Launch Complex 39
Launch Control Center
Johnson Space Center
Mission Control
Lunar Sample Laboratory
Robotic programs
Past
Hitchhiker
Mariner
Mariner Mark II
MESUR
Mars Surveyor '98
New Millennium
Lunar Orbiter
Pioneer
Planetary Observer
Ranger
Surveyor
Viking
Project Prometheus
Mars Scout
Current
Living With a Star
Lunar Precursor Robotic Program
Earth Observing System
Great Observatories program
Explorer
Small explorer
Voyager
Discovery
New Frontiers
Mars Exploration Rover
Human spaceflight
programs
Past
X-15 (suborbital)
Mercury
Gemini
Apollo
Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (with the Soviet space program)
Skylab
Space Shuttle
Shuttle–Mir (with
Roscosmos

Roscosmos State Corporation)
Constellation
Current
International Space Station
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)
Commercial Crew Development

Commercial Crew Development (CCDev)
Orion
Individual featured
missions
(human and robotic)
Past
COBE
Apollo 11
Mercury 3
Mercury-Atlas 6
Magellan
Pioneer 10
Pioneer 11
Galileo
GALEX
GRAIL
WMAP
Space Shuttle
Sojourner rover
Spirit rover
LADEE
MESSENGER
Aquarius
Cassini
Currently
operating
MRO
2001

2001 Mars Odyssey
Dawn
New Horizons
Kepler
International Space Station
Hubble Space Telescope
Spitzer
RHESSI
Swift
THEMIS
Mars Exploration Rover
Curiosity rover
timeline
Opportunity rover
observed
GOES 14
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
GOES 15
Van Allen Probes
SDO
Juno
Mars Science Laboratory
timeline
NuSTAR
Voyager 1/2
WISE
MAVEN
MMS
OSIRIS-REx
Future
JPSS
James Webb Space Telescope
WFIRST
InSight
Mars 2020
NISAR
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
Europa Clipper
Communications
and navigation
Canberra
Deep Space Atomic Clock
Deep
Space Network

Space Network (Goldstone
Madrid
Near Earth Network
Space Flight Operations Facility)
Space Network
NASA

NASA lists
Astronauts
by name
by year
Apollo astronauts
List of
NASA

NASA aircraft
List of
NASA

NASA missions
unmanned missions
List of
NASA

NASA contractors
List of United States rockets
List of
NASA

NASA cancellations
List of
Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle missions
crews
NASA

NASA images
and artwork
Earthrise
The Blue Marble
Family Portrait
Pale Blue Dot
Pillars of Creation
Mystic Mountain
Solar
System

System Family Portrait
The Day the Earth Smiled
Fallen Astronaut
Lunar plaques
Pioneer plaques
Voyager Golden Record
NASA

NASA insignia
Gemini and Apollo medallions
Mission patches
Category
Commons
Portal
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 51769292
LCCN: n79114065
ISNI: 0000 0001 2132 837X
GND: 118514652
SELIBR: 100239
SUDOC: 032784058
BNF: cb12374590j (data)
MGP: 155196
NLA: 35852072
NDL: 00520287
NKC: xx0053918
BNE: XX865227
SN