60 Years Later: The V2 And The Space Race

securitas writes "In a two-part feature written sixty years after the V2 rocket was first launched on London, BBC News Online's Paul Rincon describes the Soviet-American space race, German V2 rocket technology and how the USSR and USA divided Germany's best scientists between them. The second part addresses the technological lineage of both space programs, the creation of NASA, intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) development and the V2's legacy. Another feature provides some context, following the history of the development of the V2 rocket from its precursors that began with space flight enthusiasts like Wernher von Braun and Walter Riedel, through its use as a terrifying weapon in the London Blitz, to the recruitment drive by the Americans and Soviets. Today the V2 rocket is being used as the basis for the Canadian Arrow X Prize team. The Arrow team has some pages on V2 history and the main engine thrust chamber. For those interested you can read more at the A4 / V2 Rocket Resource site."

Comments

The best Germans

[JaredOfEuropa]

Wasn't that the answer given, when the US president demanded to know how the Russians got Sputnik up before the Americans managed a similar feat? "Because their Germans are better than our Germans".

Re:The best Germans

[shplorb]

Germans are definately the master race. I mean, they've got freakin' laws that make it illegal to brew crappy beer!

Re:The best Germans

[someme2]

They might be a bit deluded when they think of themselves as a master race (well, only some of them do) but if they were to qualify it as a "master engineering race" then I think there'd be a lot less of us that would argue with it. From rockets to cars, they are excellent engineers.

I AM AN EXCELLENT ENGINEER! I am an excellent engineer! By genetics!!!1!! I genetically r00l!11! Imagine a Beowulf cluster of myself!!!11!! My engineering genes racially own you!

Hey wait, my car... broke down... yesterday... on masterly-engineered Autobahn... my Volkswagen... I checked... couldn't find problem... d00d comes along... Is from Turkey... Looks at motor... does fiddling... car running again... Does not compute! Gene failure!!!!!1!!

I must have been adopted!!!

(True story, though).

Wernher von Braun

[frank249]

There was a movie biography of Wernher von Braun life produced in the 50's called I Aim for the Stars. I read somewhere that someone wrote on the bottom of a movie poster outside a theatre: I Aim for the Stars ... but sometimes I hit London.

Re:my parents

[dave420]

I think the fact it was travelling at 4,000mph+ might have had something to do with its silence...

Re:Launched where?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. Somebody on Slashdot actually apologised for a post that made a mistake. I think this will herald in a new era of the internet.

Re:If this is your cup of tea...

[BorgCopyeditor]

you didn't miss much

Hey! Fickt nicht mit der Raketemensch! Seriously, though, I read GR about 10 times, and it made more sense (and was more enjoyable and impressive) each time, except for the 8th. :-)

an interesting comment

[Trepidity]

Considering that the armchair psychologist and the university-trained psychoanalyst dispense equal measures of bullshit.