Von Braun, Werner (1912–1977)

German-American rocket scientist and advocate of manned space travel. Von Braun was born in Germany [Page 799]in 1912. In 1930, he began to assist German scientist Hermann Oberth in early experiments with small liquid fuel rockets. Von Braun received his bachelor's degree in 1932 from the Berlin Technical Institute and his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1934.

Von Braun was a research professor and the technical director of the German rocket research center at Peenemunde from 1937 to 1945. In 1943, he gave up his professorship to pursue the development of the V-2 rocket and other liquid fuel rocket weapons for the German government. (When von Braun died, the U.S. government declassified many documents that revealed that he had been a supporter and active member of the Nazi party during the 1930s and the early 1940s).

After World War II, von Braun was brought to the United States and became a technical adviser at the White Sands Proving Grounds (from 1945 to 1950). He was also a project director at Fort Bliss and became the chief of the guided missile development division at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1950.

One year after becoming a U.S. citizen in 1956, von Braun was appointed director of the development operations division of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (now the Marshall Space Flight Center). He was instrumental in designing rockets used to launch manned deep space flights, most notably the Apollo moon missions.

Von Braun became deputy associate administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1970 and was a well-known spokesperson for space exploration and rocket development. He is the author of several books, including Across the Space Frontier (1952), The Exploration of Mars (with Willy Ley, 1956), and First Men to the Moon.