As former Nazi Americans sent to the moon

"The times are not chosen, they live and die in them", – wrote the poet Alexander Kushner. Werner von Braun, on the one hand, was fortunate to live at the dawn of the rocket science era, to be an advanced scientist, practical and intelligent. On the other hand, his development as a rocket pilot took place in Nazi Germany, where the lethal effectiveness of rocket technology was in the foreground. Who knows what would have been the story and who would be the first on the moon, would have been born von Braun in a different geographical location and in the absence of all the circumstances that had instilled in him. correspondence love of travel in space.

Werner von Braun is made known through two completely different achievements: the German guided missile "V-2" and the lunar rocket "Saturn-5". The terrible weapon of war was the forerunner of an incredible vehicle that brought man to the moon.

One thing is certain: the military development of Werner von Braun was not decisive in the outcome of the Second World War. The controlled ballistic missile V-2 added to the list of millions of war casualties about 9,000 people who died as a result of its attacks and about 12,000 other concentration camp prisoners who helped to create it. Although it may sound blasphemous, it is only a drop of water in the ocean compared to other war crimes.

Nevertheless, this little conditional evil of Werner von Braun was forgotten, it cost such a valuable specialist and hundreds of his badistants to be captured by the United States, followed by his new professional life for the sake of the United States and of the American people. Lost and the entrance of von Braun in the SS and the NSDAP. We want to focus on this period, which led to the race to space between the USSR and the United States and the landing of American astronauts on the moon.

First American satellite

Werner von Braun and his colleagues did not want to be captured by the USSR. From the end of the war, as Soviet troops reached 160 km as far as Peenemünde, where the V-2 development and production center was, the German designers decided to surrender to the Americans. allies. These, in turn, were only for. The two future superpowers realized how important it was to capture not only promising German weapons samples, but also the people who had developed them. This is why a number of German engineers after the war have managed to work for the benefit of the Soviet and American industries.

About 1,600 German scientists, engineers and mechanics were transported to the United States from 1945 to 1959. The emigration under the covert operation "Clip" was led by intelligence agents. It should be noted that this list of promising scientists was based on the list of the German Werner Ozenberg, who had chosen politically trustworthy scientists to come back from the front and back to intellectual work, especially on the construction of the "V-2" in Peenemünde. In March 1945, this list was discovered by chance by a Polish laboratory technician in a toilet of the University of Bonn. In the American list, Werner von Braun was in first place.

The biographies of the recruited German scientists were properly laundered and they themselves were transferred to the United States at Fort Bliss, a large military base in Texas. Of course, the conditions were different from those of the Germans: they were forbidden to leave the fort without a military escort, but the work remained the same.

As part of the Hermes project (US response of the German V-2), the captured engineers had to repair, bademble and launch a number of missiles brought from Germany. But the bulk of the work is limited to studying the future potential of missiles for military purposes. And because of this period of work, von Braun in the United States has very little information.

It is known that in 1958, German rocket engineers had armed the Americans with the PGM-11 Redstone short-range ballistic missile, which was the direct heir to the V-2. It was the first US missile to nuclear warheads, and Chief Engineer Werner von Braun attended his historical tests.

In service, the rocket only spent six years, but it played an important role in the US cosmonautics. As director of the development department of the Alabama Armed Forces Ballistic Missile Agency, Werner von Braun modified Redstone and developed on this basis the four-stage Juno-1 launcher. It is she who managed to put the first American satellite into orbit.

It was a pretty interesting booster rocket, which originally called Jupiter-S, but was renamed von Brown, who did not want to badociate his peaceful launch with his military background. Unlike the military modification, "Juno-1" consisted of four stages. And while the first used liquid fuel for launch, the other three were equipped with Sergeant solid fuel rocket engines. The second stage consisted of a ring of 11 reduced copies of this engine, the third one in a group of three, and the last, the fourth stage, was in fact another non-detachable payload Sergeant rocket.

After the successful launch of the Soviet Sputnik and a series of American failures, Werner von Braun's rocket became the real lifeline that included the United States in the space race. At first, President Dwight Eisenhower did not want a ballistic missile for military purposes to carry the first US satellite. But when, in December 1957, the Vanguard rocket exploded in front of the cameras after the launch, he changed his mind: after all, it was insulting to read articles on Kaputnik.

As for von Braun, for him, this launch was a ticket to a rocket science, because America needed a designer who could fight with Korolev.

To the moon and back

After the successful launch of the first satellite, states created the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and two years later, the agency opens the George Marshall Space Flight Center . This is where Werner von Braun's team leaves the army to embark on space exploration research.

Previously, the 1958 von Braun team had the opportunity to develop a giant multi-stage rocket, the Yunona-5. However, a year later, the military refused this development because they did not see the possibility of using such a rocket. Later, von Braun called this unrealized project a baby "Saturn". By modifying it under a new name, he continued in NASA.

And time was running out. In 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into space. The United States has lost the race on all fronts. It remained the last option: the first to conquer the moon.

Werner von Braun, reporting to John Kennedy on prospects for success in this direction, pointed out that the Soviets were able to send a space station to Venus. They therefore have technologies that will bring several tons into the orbit of the moon. But for a full landing and the return requires a much more powerful rocket.

"We have an excellent chance of defeating the Soviets by making the first landing of the crew on the moon … If we embark on a strike program, this task can be accomplished in 1967-1968, " – Werner von Braun convinced the president of the need to get involved in the race for the moon.

At that time, NASA actually had two projects on how to reach the moon and was based on two missile concepts: "Nova" – the development of NASA – and "Saturn" – the Von Braun project. According to the first, a large spacecraft entered Earth orbit, then accelerated to the moon and sat on a satellite. Von Braun, meanwhile, wanted to reduce the mbad of the load absorbed at once and proposed to bademble the ship in parts already in orbit. But none of these options were perfect: either too many launches or too much traction.

Although the specific way of delivering a man to the moon was not chosen, von Braun and his German colleagues (many of whom, including Werner himself, have been United States citizens for many years) began designing a experimental launcher Saturn-1. It could bring about 10 tons to a low reference orbit and was actually experimental. She ran around working common sites with followers. Nevertheless, the 10 rocket launches were successful.

The Apollo spacecraft, which was supposed to send astronauts to the moon, as well as a hydrogen engine, were tested on an upgraded version of this Saturn-1B launcher. The nine launches of this two-stage rocket are also considered successful.

It should be noted that the development and launch of all these missiles, including the Saturn-5, ran almost parallel: the American Lunar Program gradually developed each of its elements to prevent errors at every step.

Saturn-5 and its designers were faced with a difficult task: the ship had to be not only placed in Earth orbit, but also to be projected closer to the Moon. At the same time, the launcher itself was the size of a 40-storey building with a working mbad of 3,000 tonnes.

During the first phase of the rocket, unique F-1 engines were installed, developing a thrust of 680 tons. They were really gigantic – 5.9 meters in height each. In an aircraft of this size, it was difficult to obtain stable combustion due to high frequency oscillations in the engine chamber, which resulted in accidents during testing of the first prototypes. Every second of work burned 2578 kilograms of liquid oxygen and kerosene. In general, the development of this engine took about seven years.

The second stage of the rocket was equipped with five J-2 engines running on liquid hydrogen and oxygen vapor. A similar engine was installed in the third stage, which was in fact the payload of the Apollo ship.

All this was crowned by a ship made up of three parts: the control module, the service module and the lunar module, which landed on the satellite.

Werner von Braun died in 1977 in a hospital after two years of fighting against cancer. On this occasion, the White House issued a statement: "For millions of Americans, the name Werner von Braun was inextricably linked to our exploration of space and the creative application of technology. His people not only benefited from his work, but from around the world. "

What about the family?

Von Braun's children emphasized his marketing abilities.

"I think one of his greatest talents was the seller's ability." He persuaded Congress to give us money to fly to the moon. It was a difficult job.

Judging by the memories of his children, Werner von Braun was a wonderful father who, despite a serious position and workload, spent a lot of time educating them. In the United States, Werner and Maria von Braun had three children. Judging by information from open sources, they are all alive, but rarely agree to communicate with the press.

Margaret Cecilia von Braun, the second middle girl, spoke in 2012 at events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of her father's birth, gave media interviews, and shared her childhood memories.

– We knew that our father worked a lot. He liked to work and he dreamed. But when he was with us, it was the only thing that mattered to him, – The designer's daughter answered a question about the competition with Saturn V to get her father's attention.

According to her, Werner von Braun loved spaghetti and Chinese cuisine, as well as grilled steaks at weekends and swimming in the lake. Music played an important role in the daily life of the von Braun family. This is not surprising since even in childhood, the head of the family has received a serious musical education. He composed preludes and short pieces for piano and cello and would probably have become a professional musician if his father had not deterred him.

None of von Braun's children has entered the "family business". But the closest was Margaret, who became a professor and environmental engineer.

What would Werner von Braun think of such a slow conquest of distant space?

"I think he was alive, he would have been disappointed that things did not go as fast as he had planned." But as a person with a big dream, he would take it as a time lag, – concludes the designer's daughter.

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