The Creation Of The V-2 Rocket

Have you ever wondered about the aircraft from World War Two? Or how aircrafts operated, or what materials they used to operate and win in dogfights? The WWII era was one of the first time that airplanes were used to fight in wars on such a large scale and with such a large impact. Aircraft was extremely beneficial in this war. Airplanes were a huge advantage in WWII because of all the ammunition they carried, and they used a lot of resources to help fight during WWII for their country.

Underneath the largest rocket in the world, on May 8, starting at 11:00, were sixth graders. The entire sixth grade of South Mckeel Academy slept underneath the Saturn V rocket. Not an experience to forget. Previously, the middle schoolers had taken a brief tour of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, which houses the space shuttle Atlantis. They would actually get to visit the shops and kiosks on Friday, the day after. Onto the subject of the rocket itself.

In the early 20th century new technologies like the airplane, electric grids, and automobiles made the World start to think they could achieve the impossible. A new idea was to use rockets, previously used in ground warfare, to send objects into space. Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, and Oberth grandfathered the idea of rocketry and illustrated the possibilities of rocketry in the modern world. The ideas the scientists argued did not get much attention until the Second World War. With the German V2 rocket program, the world discovered the militaristic

Even during the phases of texting for the V2 rockets, scientists were still doing tests of what the upper atmosphere would do to biological samples. “Occasionally a bag of seeds or a box of fruit flies was carried up in order to test what the cosmic rays might do to their genes.” Doing this with the V2 rockets was much easier than their previous methods, which was attaching these samples to balloons that were sent up into the atmosphere. This was because the balloons “drifted with the wind… the V2 could be aimed to crash at a certain point in the desert,” meaning that instead of the chance at having your data blown out overseas and lost, was pretty much lost completely. As the crash sites for rockets could for the most part be directed. Overall, this shows that even before space exploration was even a concept, people were still using war time technology, I.E rockets, in order to send things into our atmosphere for study

After WWII, the US and Soviet Union started to develop a new kind of missile program, not for aiming them at other countries, but aiming them at space, this period of time was known as the Space Race ( A Brief History of Space Exploration).America was launched into space because JFK knew the that America needed to restore its confidence and that America would not only meet with the soviets, but surpass them, and from that he made the goal of landing a man on the moon within the decade (Space Program). There were three main scientists from three different countries who started to design rocket engines for space travel. Those scientists were: Konstantin Tsiolkovsk from Russia, Robert Goddard from the US, and Hermann Oberth from Germany ( A

After the Second World War, the Soviet Union had completely fallen apart with nearly 27 million Soviets dead and as many as 1,700 of its cities destroyed (Siddiqi 23). Its entire economy, including its previously booming industry, was in a massive crisis leaving no funding for studies as seemingly immaterial as rocketry. Though it lacked funding from the federal government, Soviet engineers understood the future necessity for rocket technology and were still determined to learn how to recreate and improve upon the rocket designs created by Nazi Germany. Some of the greatest technological advances made by the Third Reich prior to its defeat were in nuclear weaponry and the creation of the the A-4 rocket (also known as the V-4 or Vengence-4). Developed in the world’s largest rocket research facility to date, the rocket was first tested in 1942 and had the capability to be launched up to 205 miles and reach heights close to 60 miles (nearly out of the Earth’s atmosphere) causing severe destruction to it’s unsuspecting target (Anatoly). Both the Soviet Union and the United States understood the great potential that this technology held and would do anything in their power to obtain it.

In 1936, Hitler’s army moved to weaken Rhineland, while Von Braun was busy with his plans for the more complex A-3, and the A-4 Rocket which were so massive that new launch facilities had to be developed in Peenemunde. “The army wanted a rocket that could travel 160 miles bearing a one-ton warhead, which would land within half a mile of the target” (Cadbury 9-10). Von Braun found this to be the perfect opportunity to build “the largest and most powerful rocket ever created. “‘We were only interested in one thing – the exploration of space,’ he claimed later. ‘Our main concern was how to get the most out of the Golden Calf’” (Cadbury 10). The creation of the A-4 rocket was slow at first, major innovations were introduced by Von Braun’s team. Dr. Walter Thiel, designed the engine “to incorporate several new features that would enable it to achieve more thrust” (Cadbury 10). The fuel was injected into the engine combustion chamber as a fine spray, which allowed it to mix better with the liquid oxygen. This improved

Nuclear weapons threaten to end the world and begin the step by step process to space travel. The U.S and Russia go ballistic over missiles all because of a former Nazi, Von Braun.This was because he was really smart and he would be the one to design the United States first rocket. He fled Europe to the U.S., to help them build a missile. In Russia, a prisoner named Sergei Korolev was forced to work by Stalin to build a replica missile of Von Braun’s

At the end of WWII, there was race to acquire German research on the missile program. Germany had the leading research on missile technology and both the USSR and USA wanted access to it. Getting the scientists and the documentation was a key focus area for both USA and USSR. USA was lucky that they stumbled upon the German V-2 assembly facilities and the Russians reached Peenemunde only to find the scientists long gone and the facility destroyed ( Asaeng Pg 26) At the end of the war USA could secure Werhner von Braun, the inventor of the V2 rocket. The USSR took the other German scientists and brought them back to the Soviet Union. At the end of the war the USA was the dominant military power. Von Braun 's expertise has also gave it the most advanced missile technology. The question that we must ask here is that, what would have happened if the USSR had gotten hold of the German research instead of the USA. In 1949 the Soviet Union launched their very own Atomic Bomb. This was a shock to the USA because up to this point they had always assumed that only they had the bomb. The fact that both the USSR and

First, Von Braun was the most important source of information on rocketry in the U.S. after World War Two. Why? Well, he had experience in launching rockets. Years after world war 2, von Braun helped the Army develop ballistic missiles. In 1960, he helped build Saturn rockets and he became the chief designer of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel astronauts to the Moon. Von Braun engineered the surrender of five hundred of his top rocket scientists to the Americans. His rocket team and himself went to Fort Bliss, Texas. There they worked on rockets for the Army. As a student at the Berlin Institute of Technology, he

The German V-2 rocket was an highly incredible piece of German engineering that if perfected earlier in World War Two, could have changed the tides of battle in extreme ways. In Theory, the V-2 was a unmanned guided ballistic missile that was capable of killing hundreds of people from approximately two hundred miles away; however, the V-2 rockets only killed an average of two people per missile due to considerable inaccuracy in the somewhat primitive guidance system. As a result, the V-2 rocket may have harmed the Germans more than it aided them; due to the fact that the cost to produce them was large, it took 6,967 kg of raw materials to make one (not including electronics or explosives.) In addition, the amount of fuel it took to propell

a love for space and astronomy. At 12 he was awed by the speed records of rocket propelled cars, and decided to drive a firework powered model car through city streets, and was soon brought in by the local police. Wernher Von Braun graduated from the Berlin Institute of Technology in 1932 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a doctorate degree in physics. A few years later he became a rocket engineer for Nazi Germany, and created the V-2 rocket, the first long range guided ballistic missile with a liquid propellant

Lead German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, the development of these missiles had been going on since the 1930’s. The Germany’s had three trail launches that all failed, up until the fourth one which saw the V2, a twelve ton rocket able to carry a one-ton warhead, be successfully launched. The V2 was unique in several ways:for starters it was virtually impossible to intercept. When launched, the rises vertically six miles; it then journeys on an arced course, cutting off its own fuel according to the range desired. Then it proceeds to tip over and descend on its target at speeds of almost 4,000 mph. Due to the immense force, the missile actually get burrowed several feet underground before exploding. Even though the flying distance the same as the V1’s, the V2 had portable launch pads that made it impossible to detect before firing. This was bad news the the British because this meant that Germany had mass killing rockets that were undetectable by radar and were too fast to be seen before they

The German V-2 rocket marks the beginning of the ICBM. One benefit that was taken advantage of was that it could reach almost any target; at the time, there was no defense against the missile once it was launched. The cruise missile was heavily favored and funded for years World War II. This fact is one of many that slowed the advancement of the ICBM system. The lack of funding slowed the testing and development of the ICBM. The Atlas Missile Program began in 1951, due to the unreliability of the cruise

Von Braun the leader of the scientists had discussed with the other chief designers about the possibility of surrendering to the Americans. Cadbury states that the German scientists decided that the best solution would be to go to the Americans because they had the capabilities of creating a functional space program (14). In order to achieve this they would have to be very careful not to get caught because if they were it would be considered treason and they would be executed by the government. A few months before the war ended the entire V2 experimental team and their research made the move from Peenemünde to Mittelwerk which was the production base for the V2 missile which was made with slave labor. At Mittelwerk the German scientists were “guarded” by the SS who had orders to shoot them rather than let them fall into enemy hands. The German scientists meanwhile made plans for their getaway by buying an abandoned mine in order to store the years of research that they had gained and also turned their guards away from their mission and had them become regular soldiers and surrender to the Americans alongside them. The U.S army and the Soviet intelligence agency NKVD had been tracking the rocketeers and had been trying to recruit them. On the second of May the German scientists finally encountered the Americans and they were all taken by the American Army into