Posted on 01/05/2015 7:18:57 AM PST by fishtank
Wernher von Braun: The Father of Space Flight
by Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. *
Wernher von Braun—more than any other scientist—brought us into the space age.1 Von Braun laid the foundation for cell phones, satellite radio, the Internet, GPS, and Doppler radar. His later career reads like a history of the American space program,2 and it was undergirded by a firm belief in the Creator God of the Bible.
Hear, hear.
Cell phones? I don’t think so.
Speaking of Ice Station Zebra, there were interesting parallels with the actual loss of US CORONA spy satellite masquerading under the name of Discoverer II.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station_Zebra#Plot_origin_and_cultural_impact
If only Jim Brown had been more careful when they were out there with the Snow Car or whatever vehicle that was.
“Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down
That’s not my department,” says Wernher von Braun
The smartest engineering professor I ever had was one of von Braun’s rocket scientists. Even in the 1980’s NASA used to fly him down for shuttle launches as a consultant.
Oops - Snow Cat or whatever
When you get right down to it, the V-2 was a massive investment for delivering a relatively small amount of HE. The resources would have been better spent elsewhere.
I thought that was Goddard
Wernher von Braun based his and his team’s development work with liquid fueled rocket engines upon Robert Goddard’s prior works. The U.S. Government neglected to make its resources available to Goddard in anything resembling those resources the German government made available to Von Braun and his team. This was due in part to support from Dornberger and the German Army.
Be careful about anything Von Braun wrote or said about his Nazi past after his capture and arrival in America, since he tried hard to spin it all away while working in the U.S. missile and space programs.
So that they would not be left to the tender mercies of the Russians? That's hardly a selfless act.
After getting Top Secret clearance I (E4) and nine other GIs went TDY FT.Gordon to Redstone Sept. 1958. Our assignment
90 days to install phone system in new facilities for Von Braun in his new building.
This Florida Cracker saw his first snow, in November, that year, age 23.
Nice town but weird liquor laws!
The Space & Rocket Center is a great place to visit
Was suprised how big a V-2 was
Not to mention how big the Saturn was...
America was fortunate to have captured Von Braun and others
Well do you have any evidence that he ever apologized? Just because he wanted to surrender to capitalists instead of communists doesn’t mean he renounced anything.
In retrospect you are exactly correct. But keep in mind at this time these were very revolutionary and experimental prototype weapons and technology. One can only imagine what could have occurred had the Nazis had more time to develop and improve the accuracy of the their V-2 rockets and the ability to mount atomic weapons on them, not to mention their jet rockets. Hitler of course was obsessed with these super weapons and diverted much resources to them. And the propaganda department also used the prospects of these wonder weapons to rally and galvanize morale during the closing months of the war.
It WAS Goddard.
Oberth was corresponding with Goddard in the late 1920s and Oberth later said that this was the foundation that the German space exploration society that he and Von Braun put together.
All the major elements of modern rockets were designed and patented by Goddard. Every rocket today that flies is a Goddard rocket, just with improvements.
When Von Braun and Rudolph were questioned by OSS after the war about what they did at Peenemunde, they said why are you asking us? We learned all of this from Goddard.
But because Goddard refused to be sucked into the Aerojet gang of Malina and Von Karman, he was pointedly not funded and ignored by the Army. His funding came from Guggenheim at the urging of Lindbergh.
He also invented triode tube amplifiers that were the basis for Collins Radios. He assigned that patent to Art Collins for free to spite David Sarnoff and RCA, who copied his patents and then tried to claim that DeForrest was the inventor. The resulting lawsuit ended in 1959 in Goddard’s favor, but of course it was way too late and he had died.
Goddard was a 100% American genius and creator. The Germans were smart guys and worked hard, but it was always the stupidity of American military bureaucrats that looked elsewhere for engineering capability rather then at home, probably because they couldn’t put up with a guy who was independent and didn’t need their “guidance” going down the wrong paths.
Second, I have not seen any quotes from him that showed a deep sympathy towards the Nazi movement, only to the cause of space travel.
Third, Freeman Dyson had this to say regarding von Braun:
... Whatever von Braun knew about the terrible treatment of the prisoners at the Mittelwerk factory, he did not himself, so far as I know, administer or order that treatment. In my view, von Braun was morally no better and no worse than other patriotic soldiers who take part in the atrocious killings that are inherent in modern war. The only qualities of von Braun that were exceptional were his talent and his dedication to the exploration of space.
“Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down
That’s not my department,” says Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun never made such a statement. The fake quote was used by comedians such as Mort Sahl to destroy von Braun’s reputation in the eyes of the public.
You got that right!!!
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