He is considered the father of the moon rocket, but as the earth satellite, they should reach their developers also has a dark side. A historical interview with Wernher von Braun.
Wernher von Braun is on 23 March 1912 as the son of the later Empire diet Minister Magnus Freiherr von Braun and his wife Emmy, which gives him a telescope for my confirmation. In 1930, the high school senior member of the “Society for Space Travel”, the enthusiasts are working on rockets with liquid engines. Seven years later, the 25-year-old director of the new Army Research Center Peenemünde is, a year later he joined the NSDAP in 1940 he became a member of the SS from 1943 bombed Peenemünde. The missile production (“V2″) is placed underground in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in Buchenwald. 1945 turns by Braun and his team the U.S. armed forces.
Five years later, developed by Brown in Huntsville, Texas, the Redstone, which is based on the V2. 1957 Soviets launch the “Sputnik” – the race for supremacy in space ensues. 1958: NASA is founded, taking over from Braun’s rocket development department with 5,000 employees. On 21 July 1969 to enter the first people arrived with a Saturn V rocket on the moon. 1970 is made up of brown for a manned Mars mission, a, but it fails to financing problems. On 16 June 1977 Wernher von Braun died of cancer
Technology Review. Mr. Braun, you have to be photographed just before the towering thrusters a Saturn V rocket. This enormous aircraft is to bring in a few weeks, the first man on the moon. When did you become aware that you want to build missiles
Wernher von Braun: As a child I devoured Jules Verne, there was always a fantasy space. Then I got Hermann Oberth’s book “The Rocket into Interplanetary Space” in his hands and was electrified. He has designed the basics of rocketry that was 1923. Suddenly the previously utopian got something real
. TR: There are early field trials of known you …
of Brown: Well. I have put into operation the age of 13 in Berlin’s Tiergarten once a fireworks rocket tipped with a toy car. A lady was touched, she called the police. That was very thoughtless of me
. TR: Well, attacks were also later your profession. They have constructed in the first decade and a half as rocket pioneer in Germany, especially weapons
of Brown. No, you see, we have always tried to technical problems to solve construction of missiles. Even when the war came. Much of what is understood today, there was not time yet, liquid rocket motors driven about. I had, like other enthusiasts, to found the “Society for Space Travel”, the Oberth board. We had a rocket at Berlin-Tegel Airport, the first in the world, but unfortunately very inadequate means …
TR: This has changed, as the Army became aware of you
of Brown: It was there interested in rockets because that circumvent the disarmament bid Treaty of Versailles was – the technology was so new that it did not occur in the contract . For our scientific development work we were then almost unlimited resources. In 1937 I had just erected in the Army Research Center Peenemünde no 100 employees in 1944 worked as 18000 people
. TR: Your rocket carried the sober term “aggregate” followed by a version number. “Aggregate 4″ has been renamed from Propaganda Minister Goebbels in “Vengeance Weapon 2″ – V2
of Brown. We did not feel that we develop a retaliatory weapon. Our goal was a powerful, controllable, high-precision missile. I always hoped that the war would be over before an A4 starts against a populated target. That should never happen
TR. During construction of the V2 more than 12,000 forced laborers were killed by their use about 8,000 civilians. The production of missile claimed more victims than their use
of Brown. You have to remember:., It was war
TR: technical progress was more important to you than the morality
of Brown: The science has no moral dimension. It is like a knife. If you are a surgeon and a murderer who used it in their own way
TR: In October 1942, they shot a rocket up to 90 kilometers above – it was the first handle to outer space. . At the same time the Allied invasion of Normandy began …
of Brown: brought us considerable problems The discussions in my staff to develop rockets for space flight, have . It was said by the reverie of moon flights we would sabotage the German weapons development. A colleague and I were arrested by the SS security service, and we were very lucky that we were released again after two weeks
. TR: After the war, the Americans seized gratefully on your knowledge. Them were the German rocket development in the real years ahead of
of Brown: In fact (smiles thinly). The Lockheed had among other things an order to get out what we Germans allegedly knew about anti-gravity. I’ve heard that one of the technicians was anchored in the investigation of the requisitioned for war material as First with bolts and cables in the ground, not “like other” fly away without a trace
TR.: They planned since long been manned space stations in orbit and on the moon and wanted to send people to Mars. The Americans were wowed by your vision of the future
of Brown. It was in the fifties in the United States a strong interest in science fiction, which is to some extent could draw factual. It was a great opportunity to go public in the seclusion of the military. The magazines “Collier’s” and Walt Disney invited me to present the feasibility of manned space flights in popular form. When the Soviets in 1957 shot the first Sputnik into orbit, it was clear after the initial shock, we need to obtain this advantage. . And we can
TR: What will you do should the astronauts – we all hope – successfully land on the Moon
. TR: The future will tell. Of Mr. Brown, thank you for the interview . <- AUTHOR MARKER DATA BEGIN -> ( Peter Glaser ) / <- RSPEAK_STOP -> (bsc)
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This text is the magazine issue 03/2013 taken from Technology Review. The booklet can, just like the current issue, be ordered online here.
