Wernher von Braun

Von Braun at his desk at Marshall Space Flight Center in May 1964, with models of the Saturn 

Von Braun (with arm cast) immediately after his surrender to americans

Von Braun with the F-1 engines of the Saturn V first stage at the US Space and Rocket Center

Still with his rocket models, von Braun is pictured in his new office at NASA headquarters in 1970

Grave of Wernher von Braun in Ivy Hill Cemetery (Alexandria, Virginia)

Wernher von Braun
Von Braun at his desk at Marshall Space Flight Center in May 1964, with models of the Saturn rocket family
Born	March 23, 1912 Wirsitz, German Empire
Died	June 16, 1977 (aged 65) Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Cause of death	pancreatic cancer
Nationality	German, American
Alma mater	Technical University of Berlin
Occupation	rocket engineer and designer
Spouse	Maria Luise von Quistorp(1947–1977)

Wernher von Braun
March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977 (aged 65)
Place of birth	Wirsitz, German Empire (now Poland)
Place of death	Alexandria, Virginia, US
Place of burial	Alexandria, Virginia, US
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	SS
Years of service	1937 to 1945
Rank	Sturmbannführer, SS
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	War Merit Cross, Knight's Cross First Class with Swords
Other work	Rocket engineer, NASA, Built the Saturn V rocket of the Apollo manned moon missions

Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. As a youth he became enamored with the possibilities of space exploration by reading the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and from the science fact writings of Hermann Oberth, whose 1923 classic study, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (By Rocket to Space), prompted young von Braun to master calculus and trigonometry so he could understand the physics of rocketry. From his teenage years, von Braun had held a keen interest in space flight, becoming involved in the German rocket society, Verein fur Raumschiffarht (VfR), as early as 1929. As a means of furthering his desire to build large and capable rockets, in 1932 he went to work for the German army to develop ballistic missiles. While engaged in this work, von Braun received a Ph.D. in physics on July 27, 1934.

Von Braun is well known as the leader of what has been called the “rocket team” which developed the V–2 ballistic missile for the Nazis during World War II. The V–2s were manufactured at a forced labor factory called Mittelwerk. Scholars are still reassessing his role in these controversial activities.

The brainchild of von Braun’s rocket team operating at a secret laboratory at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast, the V–2 rocket was the immediate antecedent of those used in space exploration programs in the United States and the Soviet Union. A liquid propellant missile extending some 46 feet in length and weighing 27,000 pounds, the V-2 flew at speeds in excess of 3,500 miles per hour and delivered a 2,200-pound warhead to a target 500 miles away. First flown in October 1942, it was employed against targets in Europe beginning in September 1944. By the beginning of 1945, it was obvious to von Braun that Germany would not achieve victory against the Allies, and he began planning for the postwar era.

Before the Allied capture of the V–2 rocket complex, von Braun engineered the surrender of 500 of his top rocket scientists, along with plans and test vehicles, to the Americans. For fifteen years after World War II, von Braun worked with the U.S. Army in the development of ballistic missiles. As part of a military operation called Project Paperclip, he and his rocket team were scooped up from defeated Germany and sent to America where they were installed at Fort Bliss, Texas. There they worked on rockets for the U.S. Army, launching them at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. In 1950 von Braun’s team moved to the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Ala., where they built the Army’s Jupiter ballistic missile.

In 1960, his rocket development center transferred from the Army to the newly established NASA and received a mandate to build the giant Saturn rockets. Accordingly, von Braun became director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel Americans to the Moon.

Von Braun also became one of the most prominent spokesmen of space exploration in the United States during the 1950s. In 1970, NASA leadership asked von Braun to move to Washington, D.C., to head up the strategic planning effort for the agency. He left his home in Huntsville, Ala., but in 1972 he decided to retire from NASA and work for Fairchild Industries of Germantown, Md. He died in Alexandria, Va., on June 16, 1977.