Von Braun Joins NASA: America's Space Race Ignites
Wernher von Braun and his team of German rocket engineers were transferred from the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal to the newly created NASA on October 21, 1959. Von Braun had designed the V-2 rocket that terrorized London during World War II and was brought to America under Operation Paperclip, which whitewashed the Nazi records of 1,600 German scientists. At NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, von Braun led the development of the Saturn family of rockets. The Saturn V, standing 363 feet tall and generating 7.5 million pounds of thrust, remains the most powerful rocket ever flown. It carried every Apollo mission to the Moon. Von Braun's technical genius was inseparable from his Nazi past: he held SS rank and used concentration camp labor at Mittelbau-Dora.
October 21, 1959
67 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on October 21
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