Wernher Von Braun: The Greatest Rocket Scientist of the 20th Century

Wikipedia sources say: Wernher von Braun was born in 3-23-1912 in the Province of Posen (this is part of Poland today) in the German empire. On his mother's side, Braun could trace his ancestry back to medieval royalty. After von Braun's Lutheran confirmation, his mother gave him a telescope; the telescope was the beginning of von Braun's love affair with astronomy.

Von Braun was an accomplished musician, and as a young boy wanted to become a composer. Braun could play Beethoven and Bach from memory; Braun was an accomplished cellist/pianist. He even took music lesson from Paul Hindemith.

In 1925, Braun attended a boarding school at Ettesburg castle near Weimar. At first, he did poorly in both physics and mathematics. However, in 1928, his parents moved him to Hermann-Leitz-Internat (a residential north school on the East Frisian North Sea). At this time, Braun acquired a copy of the book: Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen (The Rocket into Interplanetary Space) by Hermann Oberth. The idea of rocket travel fascinated Braun from early on in life, and after reading this book he immersed himself in physics and mathematics.

In 1930, he attended the Technical University of Berlin and assisted Oberth in liquid fuel motor test.

On July 27, 1934, Braun received his doctorate in physics from the University of Berlin.

In December 22, 1942, Hitler signed the order approving the production of the A-4 as a "vengeance weapon" developed to target London. After Hitler watched a movie which showed A-4's being launched, he was so impressed with the young Braun that he made him a professor at the young age of 31 years old...Less than two years later on 9-7-1944, London was savagely attacked by these rockets. Braun later described it as his "darkest day ever."

On May 2, 1945, Braun surrender to the American 44th infantry division.

In June of 1945, the US Secretary of State Cordell Hull approved the transfer of von Braun and his specialist to America.

In 1950, at the start of the Korean war, Braun was transferred to Huntsville, Alabama, which would become his home for the next twenty years. Between 1950-1956, von Braun led the army's rocket development team at Redstone Arsenal, this resulted in the Redstone rocket, which was used for the first live nuclear ballistic missile tests conducted in the USA.

In 1952, The Mars Project had envisaged a fleet of 10 spacecrafts, three of them unnamed and each carrying one 200-ton winged lander in addition to cargo, and nine crew vehicles transporting 70 astronauts.

NASA:
Braun not only presided over NASA from 1960-1070, but he also became its first director; Braun was responsible for sending the USA to the moon....

In 1973, Braun was diagnosed with kidney cancer that could never really be contained. After four years of struggle he finally succumbed in June of 1977.

Braun is considered by many to have been the greatest rocket scientist of all times to date.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun