A "mildly critical" article about von Braun's Collier's articles:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-03zzf.html
Obviously, I wasn't the only one who saw the new Encyclopedia
Astronautica article.
This seems awfully hyperbolic though; the Wade article really impressed
me with just how close to reality von Braun got the performance that
would be achieved with future rocket engines in his designs.
We seem to be back in WvB hunting season again... on that thought,
here's a bit of none-too-politically correct speculation:
No V-2. No von Braun. No Blitz 2 of London. No Mittelwerk-made V-2s. No
Collier's articles.
Soviet Union and United States don't have anything to inspire them to
build large rockets, or a really big rocket to play with at war's end.
First satellite goes up when? 1970?
First weather satellite when? 1975?
How many people died both at the receiving end of V-2's; and in their
manufacture by slave labor- 10,000? (remembering that the slave labor at
Mittelwerk would have been sent somewhere else without V-2's...maybe
even stayed in the same place making more V-1s)
How many people's lives were saved worldwide between Tiros 1 in 1960-
and the follow-on Nimbus, ITOS, ESSA, ATS, SMS, and Soviet Meteors- and
the year 1975- by satellite observation of weather, and in particular
in regard to hurricanes, cyclones and monsoons?
Over 10,000?
Did von Braun save more lives than his rocket cost?

Pat