Werner Von Braun

Werner Von Braun

Birth : 1912-03-23, Wyrzysk, Poland

Death : 1977-06-16

History

Werner Von Braun was a rocket pioneer and became the world's leading rocket scientist. Starting his career as a Nazi SS officer in the 1930s, and leading the team that developed what became the V-2 rocket, over 3,000 of which were eventually launched at England and Belgium during the later years of WWII. Following the war, Von Braun and 1600 other Nazi scientists were relocated to the United States via Operation Paperclip. Von Braun went to work for the US Army building early ballistic missiles, but was eventually absorbed into NACA, which became NASA, and became the first Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, whose primary task was development of the Saturn V heavy-lift rocket system which was used in the NASA manned moon landings in the late 60s-early 70s.

Profile

Werner Von Braun

Movies

The Saturn V Story
Himself
In 1961, no one believed President Kennedy’s pledge to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. To win the race to space, the USA needed to create a multi-billion dollar space program. Using stunning NASA footage, this inspirational film tells the story of the colossal challenges NASA faced to fulfill Kennedy's pledge. With the accolade of flying 24 men safely to the moon, Saturn V is considered one of mankind's greatest technological achievements. This is the story of the most powerful machine ever built, and the men and women who believed it could fly.
Footprints On The Moon
Narrator
1969 documentary film covering the flight of Apollo 11 from vehicle rollout to splashdown and recovery.