Germany in space

In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:
A lot of the von Braun team and their friends went on to popularize
space exploration to the American public in the 1950s.
Notable examples were Willy Ley, Fredrick Ordway, Krafft Ehricke, and
Ernst Stuhlinger...

Careful here -- some of these guys qualify only under the "and their
friends" clause. :-)

Although Ley was one of the founders of the VfR (which got von Braun
interested in rockets), he left Germany for the US soon after the Nazis
took over, and was never part of the von Braun rocket team.

And if I'm not mistaken, Ordway was (a) an American, and (b) too young to
have been doing rocket work in WW2, although he eventually worked
extensively with von Braun on promoting spaceflight and recording its
history.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

On Jan 29, 6:34 pm, (Henry Spencer) wrote:
In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:

A lot of the von Braun team and their friends went on to popularize
space exploration to the American public in the 1950s.
Notable examples were Willy Ley, Fredrick Ordway, Krafft Ehricke, and
Ernst Stuhlinger...

Careful here -- some of these guys qualify only under the "and their
friends" clause. :-)

Although Ley was one of the founders of the VfR (which got von Braun
interested in rockets), he left Germany for the US soon after the Nazis
took over, and was never part of the von Braun rocket team.

And if I'm not mistaken, Ordway was (a) an American, and (b) too young to
have been doing rocket work in WW2, although he eventually worked
extensively with von Braun on promoting spaceflight and recording its
history.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

Henry,
You are right. In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Ley I found his
story. He did not suppose to contribute to technical solutions.
Alex

Two books:

Space Exploration - By Werner Von Braun
V2 - By Walter Dornberger

Don't know if these are books are still in print or how widely
translated they were. Check with your nearest library.

WvB you know, Dornberger was the German Army General in charge
of Peenemunde prior to the SS takeover by Himmler late in the war.

Dave

PS: These books are from the German point-of-view during the war.
They tend to focus on the political in-fighting between the
German Army vs. the SS and on the technology and who was doing
what in that technology. As such there are only side mentions
of the "prison labor force" that helped build the German rocket
machine and the conditions they survived. This was not an
"all-volunteer" operation. The books are not lectures in moral
ethics.

IIRC WvB's book only devotes a few chapters to the war and the
period prior to the war. Most of it has do with rocket science and
the work of him team after coming to the US and to explain what
was possible from his perspective as of the mid to late 1950s.

On Jan 30, 9:32 am, David Spain wrote:
Two books:

Space Exploration - By Werner Von Braun
V2 - By Walter Dornberger

Don't know if these are books are still in print or how widely
translated they were. Check with your nearest library.

WvB you know, Dornberger was the German Army General in charge
of Peenemunde prior to the SS takeover by Himmler late in the war.

Dave

PS: These books are from the German point-of-view during the war.
They tend to focus on the political in-fighting between the
German Army vs. the SS and on the technology and who was doing
what in that technology. As such there are only side mentions
of the "prison labor force" that helped build the German rocket
machine and the conditions they survived. This was not an
"all-volunteer" operation. The books are not lectures in moral
ethics.

IIRC WvB's book only devotes a few chapters to the war and the
period prior to the war. Most of it has do with rocket science and
the work of him team after coming to the US and to explain what
was possible from his perspective as of the mid to late 1950s.
Dave,
You made very good input. Few days back was a story on the history
channel when former slave labor from Dora/Mittlework and from
Pennemunde said von Braun sometimes went in person into concentration
camp in Pennemunde to discuss technology issues with some forced
workers. Von Braun new from his eyes all details of concentration camp
life. For some reason Dr von Braun denied his knowledge about SS
management way of his forced labors. That shows how low his moral was.
From my experience people with low moral show low work ethics, but
that no means they could not be science genius; they just go to their
goal by any means and they use all possible ways, ethic and non ethic
to reach their goal. That is very interesting point to me, the person
who was recognized as a science and technology genius but used to have
low moral was appointed on project manager position with almost
unlimited budget. People around him, I expect, new about his dual
nature. Will read these books to know more.
Alex