NRO-MOL_2015

Chapter I - Early Space Station Planning
1
Early Space Station Planning
The idea of equipping
an orbital space station
with powerful telescopes
so that man might see
“fine detail on earth” was
first suggested in 1923 by
Professor Hermann Oberth.
In his pioneering book on
space flight published in
Munich, Germany, Oberth
said it would be possible “to
notice every iceberg” and
give early warning to ships
at sea from such “observing
stations.” He also thought
they could be equipped
with small solar mirrors to
furnish illumination at night
for large cities or with giant mirrors which he said could
be used to focus the sun’s rays and, “in case of war, burn
cities, explode ammunition plants, and do damage to the
enemy generally.” 1
Figure 2. V-2 Rocket
Source: CSNR Reference Collection
Figure 1. Hermann Oberth
Source: CSNR Reference Collection
Oberth’s theoretical writings on rockets, space ships
and stations, and interplanetary travel were familiar to
the German engineers and scientists who, beginning
in the 1930s, initiated development of the V-2 missile—
the first man-made object to fly through space. During
World War II, even as they worked feverishly to
perfect their war rockets
at Peenemunde * , these
experts still found time to
draft plans for future space
travel. When word of their
extra-curricular activities
reached the German secret
police in March 1944,
several of Peenemunde’s
technical staff—including
its engineering director,
Wernher von Braun—were
arrested and charged with
concentrating on space
travel to the detriment of
vital missile programs. Von
Braun paced a cell in a
Stettin prison for two weeks
before Gen Walter Dornberger, chief of the German
Army’s rocket development program at Peenemunde,
obtained his release by swearing that he was essential
to the success of the V-2 program. 2
Following the military collapse
of Hitler’s regime in
the spring of 1945, many
leading German rocket engineers
and scientists—including
Von Braun, Dornberger,
and Professor
Oberth—voluntarily surrendered
to or were swept up
by advancing U. S. Army
forces. The Americans
seized many of the Peenemunde
documents, including
drawings of Oberth’s
space mirror concept. † The
Allies, who were interested
in gathering all the information
they could about
Figure 3. Wernher Von Braun
with Ferry Rocket
Source: CSNR Reference Collection
Figure 4. Henry H. (Hap) Arnold
Source: CSNR Reference Collection
the deadly V-2’s, organized a number of interrogation
teams at the detention camps. The American and British
officers, as it turned out, were greatly handicapped by
their lack of knowledge of German technical advances.
* Several thousand V-2‘s were launched against London and Antwerp in the
final months of World War II.
† Life magazine published the Peenemunde drawings on 23 May 1945 under
the heading, “German Space Mirror: Nazi Men of Science Seriously Planned to
Use Man-Made Satellites as a Weapon of Conquest.”