Wernher Von Braun Argumentative Essay Example

of World War I. Artillery captain Walter Dornberger was assigned by the German military to consider the possibility of using rockets. He went to see the Verein fur Raumschiffarht for ideas, and impressed with their enthusiasm gave then $400 to build a rocket.The club worked throughout the spring and summer of 1932 only to have the rocket fail when tested in front of the military. In spite of this, Dornberger saw enough potential in Wernher that he hired him to head the German military’s rocket artillery unit.

By 1934 von Braun and Dornbeger had a team of 80 engineers building rockets in Kummersdorf, about 60 miles south of Berlin. Wernher had yet another opportunity to show off his leadership skills along with his ability to take in a great deal of information while keeping his mind on the big picture.After the successful launches of Max and Moritz, two liquid-fuel rockets, von Braun requested that he work on a jet-assisted take-off device for heavy bombers and all-rocket fighters. And his request was granted. However, Kummersdorf was far too small for this task, so a new facility was built. Peenemunde, located on the Baltic coastline, was chosen as the site.

Peenemunde was large enough to launch and monitor rockets over ranges of about 200 miles using optical and electric observing trajectory along with other factors while not risking impairment upon people and property.By now Hitler was ruling Germany and Herman Goering was commander of the Luftwaffe (the German Air Force). The result of Hitler and Goering’s desire for global domination was continued funding to von Braun’s team; which allowed them to develop the A-3 and later the A-4, both

liquid-fuel rockets. In 1943 Hitler decided to use the A-4 as a “vengeance weapon,” and von Braun and his associates discovered they were now finding a way to rig an A-4 to rain explosives down upon England. Fourteen months later the first combat A-4, know known as the V-2, was launched.When it successfully detonated on September 7, 1944, Wernher had only one thing to say to his colleagues, “The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet.

” Not too long later the S. S. and the Gestapo arrested von Braun for crimes against Germany because he continued to talk about building rockets that would orbit Earth and may even go to the moon. His alleged crime was that he was indulging in “pointless’’ dreams instead of building rockets for the Nazi war machine.Fortunately, Dornberger talked the S. S. and the Gestapo into releasing Wernher with the excuse that without him, there would be no more V-2s and Hitler would have them all shot, not quite that way of course. Immediately after arriving back at Peenemunde, von Braun rallied his planning staff and asked them whom they should surrender to; by this time Wernher had realized that Hitler was loosing the war and unless he and his staff surrendered, they would be taken prisoner by whoever captured them.Most of his scientists feared the Russians, all of them felt that the French would treat them like slaves, and the British did not have enough money to afford a rocket program; that left open the Americans. After steeling a train Wernher von Braun lead 500 people through the war-torn Germany to surrender to the Americans.

Secretary of

State, Cordell Hull, officially allowed von Braun’s German rocket specialists to transfer to the United States. This transfer was known as Operation Paperclip because, being that there were so many Germans stationed at Army Ordnance, the paperwork of those who were being relocated into America was marked with a single paperclip.The scientists disembarked at New Castle Army Air Base, just south of Wilmington, Delaware. From there they flew to Boston, where the men were then taken to an Army Intelligence Station post at Fort Strong in Boston Harbor.

Later, all the men, excluding Wernher, were again transferred, only this time they went to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland to sort out the Peenemunde documents brought over from Peenemunde, Germany. Those papers, when organized, would allow the engineers to pick up where they left off in their rocket experiments.Once those documents were organized, von Braun, now reunited with his men, shipped out to Fort Bliss, Texas, which was a large army installation just north of El Paso under the command of Major James P. Hamill. Because they were not aloud outside the base without an escort, the 127 men referred to themselves as “PoPs”, Prisoners of Peace.

While staying at Fort Bliss, their task was to train military, industrial, and university personnel in the fine points of rockets and guided missiles. Also they were to refurbish, assemble, and launch numerous V-2 rockets that had been shipped from Germany to the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico.Furthermore, they were to study the future probability of rockets for military and research purposes. Meanwhile, Wernher von Braun mailed a marriage proposal to 18-year-old Maria von Quirstorp. And on March 1,

1947, they married in a local Lutheran church.

Also, in December his first daughter, Iris, was born at Fort Bliss Army Hospital. In 1950, von Braun and his team were again relocated, this time they went to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Later, in 1956, the U. S. Army’s development team, led by Wernher, completed the first Redstone Rocket.In 1952, Wernher von Braun published his concept of a space station in Collier’s magazine.

This station had a diameter of 250 feet, orbited at 1075 miles, and it spun to provide artificial gravity. In theory, this station would be a perfect launching point for lunar expeditions along with planetary exploration. Wernher also worked with Disney, playing the role of technical director for three television films about space exploration. He continued working with Disney, not for the money but in anticipation that Disney’s involvement would spark public interest in space exploration.As Director of the Development Operations Division of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, von Braun’s team developed the Jupiter-C, a mutated Redstone rocket. The Jupiter-C then launched the western hemisphere’s first satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958.

This launch signaled the birth of America’s space program. NASA, National Aeronautical Space Administration, was established by law on July 29, 1958. A day later, the 50th Redstone rocket was successfully launched off Johnson Island in the South Pacific as part of Project Hardtack.Two years after that, NASA opened the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and moved von Braun and his team there. Dr.

Wernher von Braun was the center’s very first Director. The Marshall Space Center’s first major obstacle was the development of the Saturn rockets, capable of carrying astronauts

to the moon. Von Braun’s dream to “help turn the wheel of time” became a reality when a Marshall-developed Saturn V rocket flew Apollo 11 to the moon, changing the history of the Earth. Also, Skylab, the Earth’s first space station was lifted into orbit by a Saturn 1B.And the last time a Saturn rocket was used was when an Apollo craft linked with a Russian Soyuz ship outside the Earth’s atmosphere, After NASA finished with the Apollo space program, Wernher von Braun dream of what space exploration should be differed from NASA’s dream, so he retired in June 1972.

He then became the vice-president of Fairchild Industries in Germantown, Maryland. While there, he enthusiastically promoted the National Space Program. At the climax of his activities von Braun learned he had cancer.Despite surgery, the cancer continued to spread, forcing him to retire from Fairchild Industries on December 31, 1976. On June 16, 1977, Wernher von Braun’s wife, three children and two brothers watched helplessly as he past away forever. Wernher left behind a legacy that would be remembered by all who knew forever.