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The year 2019 marks the golden jubilee of Apollo 11 mission by NASA which made Neil Armstrong the first man ever to walk on moon. Despite the event being a landmark in modern history, it can’t be seen in isolation as the NASA’s Apollo missions were a result of a dedicated team of engineers and scientists working for over a decade to match with the Soviet Union’s supremacy in the field of outer space.
Within the team of those rocket scientists, one man’s contribution particularly stands out, not just because of his exemplary work which eventually made him a pioneer in his field but because of the life which he led that had a huge impact on international politics of space and US space programme in particular. The man in question is Werhner Von Braun.
He has been one of the most controversial yet revered figures in the outer space arena. He was a man who was responsible for the potent V-2 rockets used by Nazi Germany against Britain during the Second World War. He worked to develop the rocket programme during Adolf Hitler’s regime.
He had a passion for rocketry and astronomy from early childhood. During the 1930s, his association with the Nazi politics started. He was a member of German Secret Service (SS) and also applied for membership in the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi party).
As a rocket scientist, he got influenced by the work of American physicist Robert H Goddard who created the first liquid fuelled rocket. Towards the end of 1930s, civilian rocket tests ended in Nazi Germany and the full focus was on the military usage of rockets. Rockets as weapons were used quite strategically by the Nazis against the allied forces during Second World War.
Both the US as well the Soviet Union had their eyes set on the Nazi missile programme once they saw its potential when over hundreds of V-2 rockets fired from Germany resulted in a huge destruction in London city. Despite the potential, V-2 rockets were not enough to save the Axis powers from losing in the World War II.
Von Braun knew this fact even before the war ended and made his thoughts public in a gathering which he thought was harmless. He also said that he was more interested in launching his rockets into the space rather than launching them on a city to kill people. Weeks later he got arrested on the charges of treason, only to be released shortly after few weeks. This was because Nazi regime needed a person of his calibre to win them the war.
Move to US
Von Braun knew that his future in the country was not safe. Secondly, he saw better prospects in the US for himself. Merely three days after Hitler committed suicide, he surrendered himself to the soldiers of the US 44th Infantry division. The rest of his team of engineers also surrendered to the US subsequently during Operation Paperclip launched by the US.
As a result, the needs of both the sides — the US government as well Von Braun and his team of engineers — got satisfied. The Americans got Von Braun to develop their own missile programme while Von Braun got an excellent opportunity to leave a war-torn Germany where his life was under threat.
Till date, the decision of US authorities to provide Von Braun an opportunity to wash up his sins of his Nazi past and become an American hero in the decades to come is seen by many as American opportunism. Although, the US authorities to showcase their morality ‘under-used’ Von Braun’s and his team’s talent for more than a decade. It was only after America’s failure to launch the first artificial satellite and Sputnik 1’s successful launch by the Soviets that Von Braun came into the picture. He was made the director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, from 1960 to 1970. He was instrumental in developing the Saturn IB and Saturn V space vehicles, as well as the Saturn I rocket for the Apollo 8 moon orbit in 1969.
Today, when one looks back into Von Braun’s staggering career, he comes out as a person whose tremendous achievements as rocket scientist and an able administrator couldn’t overshadow his Nazi past. To sum, it would be impossible to understand the phenomenon of space race without looking into the contributions of Von Braun in the arena of outer space and rocketry.
The writer is a Junior Research Fellow, School of International Studies, JNU
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