THE FATHER OF SPACE TRAVEL - WERNER VON BRAUN.

Operation Paper Clip 1 : From Nazi to NASA

Most readers have at least heard of the first satellite to orbit the earth, Sputnik (1957). It is hard to imagine today what a shocking piece of news it was. At that time, nothing and nobody had ever been to space or into orbit around the earth — nothing. So when the first satellite went into orbit, the news was earth-shaking, gob-smacking, front-page, and world-wide. It was discussed in my second and third grade classrooms, on television, and at the dinner table; literally everywhere and by almost everyone.

But that first orbiting satellite in space was not put there by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) or the USA. It wasn’t American. Nor was it German, as was the subject of this post, “The Father of Space Travel.” Sputnik was the product of the USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The USSR no longer exists. It peacefully disbanded itself in 1991. Many of the Central Asian republics were once part of it. You’ve heard of them: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The most powerful and central of the republics in the USSR, however, was Russia. And as you also know, Russia is still in existence; as are the other republics of the former USSR, now independent. Russia put the first satellite into orbit. But Werner von Braun (1917-1977) is known as “the Father of Space Travel.” How is that?

Werner Von Braun, the “father of space travel,” was one of about 1,600 Nazi scientists, intelligence officers, and technicians who were SECRETLY removed with their families from Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Von Braun had been an SS officer under the direct command of Heinrich Himmler. Others were Nazi officials, party members, or military/intelligence specialists. Operation Paperclip was a covert operation because ordinary American citizens - whose sons, fathers, and daughters had been killed in the war - would have tolerated the protection, payment, and placement of members of the genocidal fascist regime in cushy jobs that Americans themselves ought to have filled. More on Operation Paper Clip in later posts.

The author of this blog has a tangential connection to the von Braun story. One of his children, Margrit von Braun, was born in the United States in 1952, educated in the best private schools, and ultimately attended Oberlin College, UCLA, Georgia Tech, and Washington State University where she received a doctorate in engineering. She was the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies of the University of Idaho when the author attended there.

Werner von Braun was a Nazi. He was a member of the party, an officer in the SS, and slave-camp labor used to build his factories and rockets in Germany. His rockets were used to bomb London. So how did this happen? How did he become a born-again American hero of space travel? Here’s the story on “the Father of Space Travel” you MAY not have received in school. Young and old alike, after you’ve watch it, kindly return and comment.