Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Wernher von Braun: The Father of Space Flight
Institute for Creation Research ^ | Jan 2015 | Jerry Bergman

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: braun; creation; nasa; space
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-87 next last
To: Timber Rattler

“Von Braun’s Nazi membership number was 5,738,692.”

Given his family’s prominence and his occupation, how do you realistically suppose von Braun was supposed to avoid being recruited as the 5.7 millionth member in that totalitarian regime?

“His SS membership number was 185,068 and his wore his uniform regularly to official SS functions.”

Hitler, Himmler, and the SD/SS made it mandatory for von Braun to participate in at least the minimal duties of member ship as a means of controlling von Braun, his team, and their families with the looming threat of deadly consequences for not maintain the appearance of his voluntary cooperation.

“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.”

What else was the man supposed to do? The U.S. Army and the intelligence services faced a problem with the laws prohibiting NAZIs from being brought into the United States. never mind we had tens of thousands of NAZIs in our prisoner of war camps in the United States long after the war was over. Hitler and Himmler knew they could poison any future relationship between von Braun and the British, Americans, or Russians by coercing his membership and apparent participation in the NAZI Party and SS. They were concerned that von Braun might choose to save himself at the expense of his team and their families by using an aircraft at this disposal to defect to the Allies before or during the war. They believed that avenue of escape could be discouraged or blocked altogether by making von Braun appear to be too damaged in reputation for the Allies to employ. U.S. Government policy played right into the hands of Hitler and Himmler, so covert means were used to bring the von Braun team to the United States despite these laws. Consequently, von Braun was warned by his U.S. intelligence mentors not to report anything that could be misconstrued by the Communists in the U.S. Government for the purpose of denying the services of von Braun and his team by the U.S. Government.

Given his circumstances, what else would or could you have reasonably done in von Braun’s position?


41 posted on 01/05/2015 9:16:01 AM PST by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Timber Rattler

“So that they would not be left to the tender mercies of the Russians? That’s hardly a selfless act.”

Many other scientists among the Peenemunde team chose to go to the Russians. There were many instances where von Braun risked life and limb to protect people against the threats of the NAZIs. After von Braun’s serious injuries in the automobile accident during their evacuation, von Braun could have simply stayed in the hospital and let everyone else fend for themselves and the technical documentation to be destroyed or captured by the Russians. Instead von Braun endured tremendous pain and risks to see his people were safely in American custody along with the technical documentation needed to resume a future space program built upon the foundation started by Robert Goddard.


42 posted on 01/05/2015 9:21:48 AM PST by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: bigdaddy45

“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.”

What do you think von Braun owed an apology for?


43 posted on 01/05/2015 9:23:30 AM PST by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Regulator
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.

Whoa! I thought DeForest DID invent the triode. Didn't the USPS even put out a stamp some years ago commemorating that? I didn't know about the Sarnoff angle but I did read a book about (the SOB) Sarnoff stealing the technology for television from Philo Farnsworth, who'd invented it.

44 posted on 01/05/2015 9:23:48 AM PST by pa_dweller
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: SaveFerris

I was searching for something else and found that the entire world’s rockets into space programs from 1946 to 1951 was only captured V-2s. That’s all that went up in those years. The Russians and us launched several dozen back then, even England sent up a couple.


45 posted on 01/05/2015 9:25:41 AM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult (Liberals make unrealistic demands on reality and reality doesn't oblige them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: fishtank

Von Braun deserves much more credit than JFK for getting us to the moon. So does the early success of the Soviet space program.


46 posted on 01/05/2015 9:25:47 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fishtank

Von Braun and President Eisenhower touring a Saturn booster in 1960 before Kennedy was elected.

47 posted on 01/05/2015 9:30:43 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void

48 posted on 01/05/2015 9:41:31 AM PST by shove_it (The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen -- Dennis Prager)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Regulator

The New York Times on Goddard, in a 1921 editorial:

“That Professor Goddard with his ‘chair’ in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react - to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools . . .”

Isn’t it gratifying to know that when it came to things scientific the so-called “paper of record” had its collective head as far up its collective posterior 100 years ago as it does today (as evidenced by its pontifications on global warming/climate change/climate disruption/whatever they’re calling it today).


49 posted on 01/05/2015 9:45:57 AM PST by Stosh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX
My father got the privilege of meeting and working with Von Braun in Huntsville back in the 1960s. He said he was probably the smartest man he ever met. Of course my dad, (the erstwhile comedian) would always give me and my brother the following line when we complained that he was too strict - “You ought to be thankful you are not one of Von Braun’s kids. I bet he's got them goose-stepping.”

His attempt at black humor was lost on me and my brother.

50 posted on 01/05/2015 10:11:54 AM PST by ohioman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines

Red Skull was behind many of the Nazi’s weapons....
Hitler financed the construction of secret bases for Red Skull in locations around the world. They were equipped with advanced experimental weapons developed by Nazi scientists like Wernher von Braun.


51 posted on 01/05/2015 10:27:16 AM PST by minnesota_bound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: ohioman

“My father got the privilege of meeting and working with Von Braun in Huntsville back in the 1960s.”

I had the privilege of serving as a conference host for von Braun’s post-war team member, Jesco von Puttkamer. He was a gracious gentleman with an unconcealed enthusiasm for human spaceflight and exploration.


52 posted on 01/05/2015 10:29:04 AM PST by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: pa_dweller
It's probably better to say that he invented Regeneration, note his patent for the High Frequency Vacuum Tube Oscillator - this is more then just the tube:

Patent 1159209

Collins Radio has a short summary:

Collins Radio Using Goddard Oscillator

From the Collins page: "Also at issue was the basic deForest triode oscillator circuit patent controlled by RCA" and "The workaround on the critical oscillator patent was for Art Collins to secure the patent rights from Dr. Robert Goddard (of liquid fuel rocket fame) who had been granted a patent on his unusual external grid vacuum tube in 1915. Collins developed its own oscillator circuit around this unique tube having its grid on the outside of the glass envelope".

Also see Who invented the Superheterodyne?.

And this little comment... The Story of the Valve .

53 posted on 01/05/2015 10:51:20 AM PST by Regulator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Stosh

It was stupid even at the time.

Journalism majors are so utterly unqualified to comment on virtually anything in science because as they admitted in the editorial, they know maybe a bit from High School and that’s it. And usually what they “know” is a misinterpretation.

Ask a space journalist, “what keeps the satellite in orbit?” and see what you get.


54 posted on 01/05/2015 11:08:09 AM PST by Regulator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: X Fretensis

Only man who won the Iron Cross (pinned on him by Adolph Hitler), and the medal of Freedom (pinned on him by LBJ). He never wore them together. His role in the Slave Factories at Nordhausen has never been explained—200,000 died there. He is a complex man both hero and villain. Without him we never would have landed a man on the moon—If Germany won the war—he would have landed Germans there first.


55 posted on 01/05/2015 11:10:53 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Hillarys Gate Cult

“I was searching for something else and found that the entire world’s rockets into space programs from 1946 to 1951 was only captured V-2s. That’s all that went up in those years. The Russians and us launched several dozen back then, even England sent up a couple.”

Your source was wrong. The U.S. hade American, German, and hybrid American-German designs for high altitude research and military rocket-missiles in the period of 1943 to 1951. See for some examples:

JPL (GALCIT) Private

JPL RTV-G-1/RV-A-1 WAC Corporal

JPL/Firestone SSM-A-17/M2/MGM-5 Corporal

Aerobee and Aerojet General RM-84/PWN-2 Aerobee-Hi

Consolidated-Vultee project MX-774 and Convair RTV-A-2 Hiroc

Martin RTV-N-12 Viking

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/index.html


56 posted on 01/05/2015 11:31:37 AM PST by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: Forward the Light Brigade

In the German Armed Services the Iron Cross is a combat decoration. Actually what Von Braun was awarded by Hitler was the “War Merit Cross”. This is the non military version of the Iron Cross. This medal uses the same ribbon as the Iron Cross. There was a War Merit Cross with swords awarded for combat action that did not meet the criteria for an Iron Cross. The War Merit Cross was awarded for meritorious civilian accomplishments. Albert Speer was also received the War Merit Cross.


57 posted on 01/05/2015 12:31:01 PM PST by X Fretensis (How)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: Regulator
Thanks much for that last link. I dabble in tube audio electronics and have some of the relevant literature - that is a nice extension for background.

You probably know this, but others may not. Duncan's fantastic little tube data utility TDSL (personal edition for desktop use):

http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/

58 posted on 01/05/2015 1:09:19 PM PST by Moltke ("The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution if you only know how to use it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
Hitler of course was obsessed with these super weapons and diverted much resources to them.

Hitler was not very fond of the rocket program until every other avenue was nearly exhausted. Hitler insisted on observing a V-2 launch before the guidance system bugs were ironed out. The V-2 hit too close to Hitler for comfort, and Hitler assumed they were incompetent.

Our space program was badly floundering prior to Von Braun's involvement at NASA. Prior to that, Von Braun was working exclusively on ICBMs. Von Braun was really good at rocketry, but much better at project management.

59 posted on 01/05/2015 1:48:31 PM PST by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Moonman62
...Saturn booster in 1960 before Kennedy was elected...

The Saturn was not on display in a museum in 1960. Not at one had been built by that time.

60 posted on 01/05/2015 1:51:26 PM PST by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-87 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson