From V-2 rocket to moon landing
He was a handsome, charismatic, brilliant, onetime member of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party and SS paramilitary force. He also was a hero in the United States hailed for helping to land the first man on the moon. During World War II, German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun led a group of engineers in creating the V-2 ballistic missile. The weapon eventually killed 7,000 Allied troops and civilians in London and Antwerp, Belgium, and led to the deaths of 20,000 prisoners in the German forced labor camp where it was manufactured. But von Braun and his colleagues ultimately found a new home. After surrendering to the Americans near the end of the war, the scientists were moved to the United States, where they quickly became a vital part of the U.S. Army’s own ballistic missile program. In 1960, the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) came calling. From NASA’s space flight facility...