Wernher von Braun

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Wernher von Braun

• Developer of the V-2 Ballistic Missile for the
  Nazis, and the Saturn V-5 Launch Vehicle for NASA

Presentation By Connor Brandt
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Wernher von Braun Is Born
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr1 von Braun
was born on March 23rd, 1912, in Wirsitz,
Province of Posen (which is now Poland). His
mother, Emmy von Quistorp, by both her parents,
was related to medieval European royalty. His
father, Lord Magnus von Braun, was the Minister
of Agriculture in the Federal Cabinet during the
Weimar Republic. He also had an older and a
younger brother.
Wernher (center) and His Two Brothers
1Freiherr is not a name, but a title similar to
Baron
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Childhood
After Wernher von Braun's Lutheran confirmation,
at the age of 14, his mother gave him a
telescope, and he found a love for astronomy and
space. When Wirsitz became part of Poland in
1920, as a result of the Treaty of Versailles,
his family moved, like many other German
families. They settled in Berlin, where von
Braun did not do very well in physics and
mathematics until he got a copy of the book Die
Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket into
Interplanetary Space) by Hermann Oberth. After
that, he applied himself more at school in order
to better understand physics and mathematics. At
the age of sixteen, von Braun was taken into
custody until his father picked him up when he
lit a number of rockets attached to a wagon, in
the middle of a crowded street.
The book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen
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Further Education

• In 1930, von Braun went to the Berlin Institute
  of Technology, where he joined the Verein für
  Raumschiffahrt (VfR, the "Spaceflight Society")
  and assisted Hermann Oberth in liquid-fueled
  rocket motor tests.
• After he received his degree, he continued
  postgraduate studies at The Technical University
  of Berlin, earning a doctorate in physics
  (aerospace engineering) on July 27, 1934.

Dr. Von Braun with a group of rocket
experimenters in Germany in the 1930s. He is
second from the right.
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Work In Germany
Throughout the 1930s von Braun continued to
develop rockets for the German army, and by 1941
designs had been created for the ballistic
missile that would became the V-2. The creation
of Wernher von Braun's rocket team, this rocket
was the immediate predecessor of those used in
space exploration programs in the United States
and the Soviet Union. It was a liquid propellant
missile 46 feet in height and weighing 27,000
pounds. The V-2 flew at speeds of more than
3,500 miles per hour and could deliver a
2,200-pound warhead to a target 500 miles away.
Its first test flight was on October 1942, and
it was used against targets in Europe beginning
on September 1944. Beginning on September 8,
1944, German forces began launching V-2s against
Allied cities. Though they were manufactured by
concentration camp labor, by the end of the war
1,155 V-2s had been fired against England and
another 1,675 had been launched against Antwerp
and other continental targets. The guidance
system in the missiles were not perfect, and many
did not reach their targets. However, they struck
without warning and there was no defense against
them. As a result, the V-2s had a terror factor
far beyond their capabilities.
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The V-2 Rocket
The insides of the rocket
A V-2 Rocket engine
A V-2 rocket on its Meillerwagen transporter
The V in V-2 stood for Vengeance
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Arrested By The Nazis And Surrendered To The
Allies
Heinrich Himmler was plotting to use Hans
Kammler to gain control of all German armament
programs, including the V-2 program at
Peenemünde, to increase his power-base within the
Nazi régime. He then advised that von Braun work
more closely with Kammler to solve the problems
of the V-2, but von Braun replied that the
problems were only technical and he was confident
that they could be solved with Walter
Dornberger's assistance. Von Braun was arrested
on March 22, 1944, by the S.S., or Schutzstaffel
(Protective Squadron) for over-concentration on
space travel rather than military missile
problems. He was taken to a Gestapo cell in
Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland), where he was
imprisoned for two weeks without being told the
charges against him. Dornberger was able to
obtain von Braun's conditional release, and
Albert Speer convinced Hitler to release von
Braun so that the V-2 program could continue.
By the start of 1945, it was obvious to von
Braun that Germany would not be victorious
against the Allies, and he began planning for
after the war. Before the Allied forces captured
the V-2 rocket complex, von Braun set up the
surrender of 500 of his best rocket scientists,
along with plans and test vehicles, to the Allies.
Von Braun Arranging For The Surrender
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Working At NASA
One day after NASA was established, the 50th
Redstone rocket was successfully launched from
Johnston Atoll as part of Operation Hardtack. Two
years later, NASA opened the new Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and moved
von Braun and his development team there.
Presiding from July 1960 to February 1970, von
Braun then became the center's first
Director. The Marshall Center's first major
program was the development of Saturn rockets.
They were designed to carry heavy payloads into
orbit, and even beyond orbit. Wernher von
Braun's dream to help man set foot on the Moon
came true on July 16, 1969 when a Saturn V rocket
launched the crew of Apollo 11 on its historic
eight-day mission. Over the duration of the
Apollo program, the Saturn V rockets allowed six
teams of astronauts to reach the Moon. At the
time of the first moon landing, von Braun
expressed his hopefulness that the Saturn rocket
would continue to be developed, and make manned
missions to Mars in the 1980s. During the late
1960s, von Braun played an active role in the
development of the U.S. Space Rocket Center in
Huntsville. In 1970, von Braun and his family
moved from Huntsville to Washington, D.C. when he
was assigned as NASA's Deputy Associate
Administrator for Planning at NASA Headquarters.
However, with the ending of the Apollo program,
von Braun retired from NASA in June 1972, as it
became obvious that his and NASA's visions for
future U.S. space flight projects were
different.
Wernher at his desk with model rockets in May 1964
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Saturn V

• Generated almost 8 million pounds of thrust
• After nearly 40 years, it is the only vehicle
  that has brought a person beyond Earths gravity
• 363 ft in height
• Weight 285,000 lbs.
• Consisted of Three Stages

Takeoff of The Saturn V Rocket
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Later Years
After he left NASA, von Braun became a
vice-president of Fairchild Industries in
Germantown, Maryland. He helped establish and
promote the National Space Institute, which was
similar to the present-day National Space
Society. In 1976, he became the scientific
consultant to Lutz Kayser, the CEO of Orbital
Transport und Raketen AG, or Orbital Transport
and Rockets, Inc. He became a member of the
Daimler-Benz (which later became Mercedes Benz)
board of directors. He was also frequently asked
to speak at universities and colleges about his
work with NASA and rockets.
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His Death
In 1976, von Braun found out that he had cancer.
Even with surgery, the cancer continued to get
worse, forcing him to retire on December 31,
1976. In January 1977, he was confined to his
bed, and got weaker each month, until on June 16,
1977, Wernher von Braun died in Alexandria,
Virginia. He was 65 years old.
Wernher von Brauns burial site, in Ivy Hill
Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia
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Bibliography

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun
• http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbraun.htm
  
• http//history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/bio.html
• http//history.nasa.gov/sputnik/braun.html
• http//www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/SPACEFLIGH
  T/von_Braun/SP4.htm
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_rocket
• http//www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1720.html
• http//www.mlahanas.de/Physics/Bios/WernherVonBrau
  n.html
• http//www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/GAL114/SpaceRac
  e/sec300/sec384.htm

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The End
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