Wernher_Von_Braun

Wernher Von Braun Wernher von Braun And His Contributions To America’s Space Program Wernher von Braun was a visionary and idealist. Without von Braun’s initial contributions to the U.S. space program, America would never have made the progress it did and remained competitive with the Soviets during the “Space Race”. Von Braun’s rockets and ingenuity almost single handedly launched the U.S. into space. Born on March 23, 1912 in Wirsitz, Germany, von Braun was inspired by the works of Hermann Oberth and a telescope from his mother (Semler). His repertoire consisted of a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Berlin Institute Of Technology and a PhD in Physics from the University of Berlin (Sandmen). After becoming a member of the VfR (a German Rocket club) von Braun and a select few were hired to develop rockets by the German Army. While working for the military von Braun led a team that developed the V2. The V2 was the first successful ballistic rocket and is the ancestor of modern rockets (Lampton, 55, 59). After defecting to the U.S. during Operation Paperclip, von Braun and his team were transferred to several places before being stationed at White Sands Missile Range in von, braun, space, rocket, first, lampton, saturn, project, launched, braun’s, rockets, redstone, satellite, america’s, moon, launch, bergaust, army, abbanat, v2, jupiter, apollo, technology, team, sobel, put, after, white, vanguard, top, successful, stage, powerful, orbiter, orbital