He delivered. In , his group successfully tested the A-4 missile, firing the weapon nearly 60 miles into the atmosphere. The V-2 was a particularly terrifying weapon. The missiles traveled so fast that victims, most of whom were civilians, often heard nothing until after they struck.
For his part, von Braun, who was apparently still interested in space travel, is said to have remarked that the rockets worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet — a line that, at best, paints him as detached from the consequences of his work.
As the Allies advanced into the heart of Germany, von Braun and his engineering team headed south to surrender to the Americans, rather than await the Red Army. Von Braun was one of about German scientists who, in a then-secret U. Rather than be held accountable like other important figures in Nazi Germany, they were given new lives. The Soviet Union also took German scientists for similar reasons, foreshadowing the superpower showdown that was to come.
Once he was settled in the U. But Neufeld stops short of casting him as a complete villain. It would have been dangerous for von Braun to complain to Nazi leadership about his work or the conditions in which his missiles were made, Nuefeld says. Biddle frames von Braun as a war criminal with direct involvement in the V-2 slave labor project, and a man who only escaped justice thanks to the efforts of the American government, which was desperate for help in beating the Soviets.
That moral calculation enabled von Braun to become an iconic leader in the American space program, admired by many and untouchable out of sheer national necessity. Decades later, Biddle argues, the reassessment of his legacy may have had less to do with a growing understanding of his crimes than the fact that the engineer was simply no longer needed. And while he was undeniably an engineering genius, that this onetime cog in the Wehrmacht died a largely unquestioned American hero speaks to what was perhaps his greatest skill: salesmanship.
To survive in Nazi Germany, he sold Hitler a dream of victory through superior technology. Later, he sold the U. What is notable, however, is that a major Russian media outlet has published such a revelatory article for a domestic audience. Increasingly, Russia's space program seeks to project its greatness in space through symbolic acts rather than technological achievements—such as the launch of a Russian movie star , sending a robot nicknamed Fedor to space , or making entirely hollow promises about a Moon landing in But now it has been called out on these acts in a publication closely aligned with the Russian government.
This article was written by Dmitry Popov, who has worked at the publication since During his career Popov earned numerous official expressions of thanks, recognitions, and awards from the Russian government and recently received a commemorative dagger from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Because the article was published in a state-sanctioned newspaper, Popov is exempt from the country's recently declared rules about independent media reporting on much of Russia's space activities.
Notably Popov's analysis is highly critical of Dmitry Rogozin, who leads the Roscosmos space corporation, which manages much of the country's spaceflight activities. So why is a state-sanctioned journalist criticizing the state's space leader in a state-aligned publication? That's a big question. Popov goes on to state that Russian space companies are delinquent on promised deliveries for hundreds of contracts. For example, the Khrunichev Center agreed to deliver 10 booster cores for the Angara A5 rocket five years ago.
The first five cores were delivered only in March of this year, and the other five are not yet completed. From the article:. Because Roscosmos is exercising, shall we say, not-so-strict control over execution of defense contracts by its daughter companies.
His execution is stayed at the last minute. On November 16, , the British author J. Based on the mega-best-selling fantasy novel of His grave robbing, necrophilia and cannibalism gained national attention, and may have provided inspiration for the characters of Norman Bates in Psycho and serial killer Buffalo Bill in Hessian Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen and a force of 3, Hessian mercenaries and 5, Redcoats lay siege to Fort Washington at the northern end and highest point of Manhattan Island.
Throughout the morning, Knyphausen met stiff resistance from the Patriot riflemen Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Early 20th Century US. World War II.
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