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Author
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Topic: Considering Wernher von Braun's legacy
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Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1563
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 11-08-2020 11:26 AM
   
quote:
Originally posted by capoetc:
No one else had the broad skill set that von Braun had — like him or not, he was absolutely critical to the effort to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade, just as Korolev was vital to the Soviets.
Von Braun only dealt with launch vehicles. JPL or MSC did the spacecraft and NRL did tracking. Korolev was responsible for launch vehicles and for developing spacecraft, manned and unmanned. Korolev also dealt directly with the cosmonauts. And there were others like Bernard Schriever who had broader skill sets. He managed Thor, Atlas, Titan, Minuteman and early milspace. |
Jonnyed
Member Posts: 450
From: Dumfries, VA, USA
Registered: Aug 2014
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posted 11-08-2020 04:57 PM
As I was poking around on this subject, I came across a 1984 New York Times article titled, "German-Born NASA expert quits U.S. to avoid a war-crimes suit."According to the piece, the former Nazi-NASA official in question was Arthur Rudolph, manager of the Saturn V program and would have been a close associate of von Braun. While not on an Allied list of war criminals, by the 1980s the Justice Department appeared to have sufficient evidence of Rudolph's involvement with V-2 slave labor to threaten the action causing Rudolph's flight to West Germany. Fascinating isn't it? It's the age old question of who falls above the law and who doesn't (and the timing of any action) and what are the justifications. |
Jonnyed
Member Posts: 450
From: Dumfries, VA, USA
Registered: Aug 2014
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posted 11-20-2020 06:01 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Jim Behling:
The Atlas, Thor and Titans were all independent of the Germans.
Jim's interesting statement about certain rocket programs independent of the Germans sparked a question in my mind: Given the Nazi service of many (most?) of the German scientists transplanted to the U.S. post-war (eventually entering service at NASA), did they have their security clearances limited? Were they deliberately excluded from some programs, or did they have broad latitude? In short, did security folks in the U.S. government "draw a box" around von Braun and instruct him to "stay within the lines" or did he pretty much have free reign? |
NukeGuy
Member Posts: 68
From: Irvine, CA USA
Registered: May 2014
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posted 11-20-2020 11:11 PM
The von Braun team worked for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency until they were assigned to NASA. Thor, Atlas and Titan were Air Force projects. This does not discount the possibility that the von Braun team were asked for assistance on the Air Force projects but I’m sure there was inter-service rivalry at play to some degree. |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1563
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 11-21-2020 01:49 PM
The only interaction was on shared engines (Thor and Jupiter). quote:
Originally posted by Jonnyed:
Were they deliberately excluded from some programs, or did they have broad latitude?
In the 50's, they worked on high priority Army missile projects. | |
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