The History of Sounding Rockets and Their Contribution to ... - ESA

V2 as a war missile, pushed by the German army authorities, led to a postponement of the use of the V2 as
a scientifi c sounding rocket. Only after the War was the V2 used again as a sounding rocket, being launched
from White Sands in New Mexico (USA), from where V2s were being launched by the team led by von
Braun.
Von Braun and Dornberger jointly wrote a book in the spring of 1945 showing the value of the V2 rocket for
atmospheric research (i.e. as a sounding rocket) and for space research; they described their vision of fl ying
to the Moon and to the planets and mentioned as an intermediate step the establishment of a space station
in low Earth orbit. In order to avoid problems with the Nazi regime, they had the book published only after
the end of the War. In this context, it should be recalled that von Braun was imprisoned by the SS, being
accused of thinking more about rocket-based space exploration than about military missiles. Thanks to the
intervention of General Dornberger, von Braun, Riedel and Göttrup were released after just a few days.
After the fi rst British bombing attack on Peenemünde in April 1943, during which 600 rocket personnel
were killed, dispersion of the group of rocket experts to different places started. V2 series production activities
were placed under the responsibility of the SS and moved to the mining areas of Nordhausen in
central Germany. There, prisoners of war and inmates of the Dora concentration camp were forced to work
underground under terrible inhuman conditions, where some 20 000 of them died.
When the Red Army conquered Peenemünde on 5 May 1945, they found it deserted and destroyed. The
German military authorities had moved the key rocket experts and their documentation to the south where,
in mines near the Austrian/German border at Lake Traunstein, a new rocket centre was to be created. The
SS had given the order to execute von Braun and his team should they have to surrender. However, with the
help of General Dornberger, this was avoided.
Von Braun and his closest collaborators had planned (and managed) to surrender to the American army, and
not to the Soviets, British or French; they saw in wealthy America by far the best chance of pursuing and
exploiting their ideas about rocket development for spacefl ight purposes.
At the end of the War, frenzied competition between the Allies took place with the objective of capturing
German rocket experts, seizing technical documentation and capturing not-yet-destroyed V2 rockets. Each
country built up its own corresponding V2 setup. Each obtained complete V2 rockets and components such
as engines, combustion chambers, turbopumps, gyroscopes, gas generators, nozzles, tubes, valves, electromagnetic
and pneumatic systems, electronic components, etc.
The USA’s war booty
A Special Mission V2 unit of the American army was the most successful participant in this competition.
The V2 production site was located near Nordhausen, an area (Thuringe) of Germany which was fi rst provisionally
occupied by American troops, but which was later – according to the Yalta Agreement between
the War Allies – to become part of the Soviet occupation zone. During this short and transient ‘American’
period, a specialised US raid in a 10-day crash action dismantled more than 100 V2 rockets and transported
them by train to Antwerp for shipment to the USA. In contrast to Peenemünde, the Nordhausen facilities had
not been completely destroyed when the German army had to give up this area.
The American Special Mission V2 unit captured von Braun and 350 of his closest collaborators (more followed
later), found the 13 t of Peenemünde technical documentation and about 100 V2 rockets, and took
them to New Mexico. Von Braun himself was considered to be the most important prisoner of war World
War II, and later became the father of the American lunar Saturn-V rocket. The fi rst V2 launches in the USA
took place from White Sands (New Mexico) between 10 May and 9 July 1946, when fi ve V2’s reached
altitudes of more than 100 km.
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