von Braun, Wernher

Born in eastern Prussia in 1912, Werder von Braun became interested in rockets at a very early age. After studying in Zurich and Berlin he devoted his doctoral thesis to rocket propulsion. From the beginning of his professional career he worked for the German army. Becoming a member of the Nazi party in 1937 (and then the SS) he developed the first ballistic missile, the famous V2, of which thousands of examples were launched at Great Britain, The Netherlands and Belgium.

In 1945 he gave himself up to the Americans who took him to their country. There he very quickly directed a guided missile programme and then played a decisive role in the launching of the first American satellite. From 1960 onwards he spent the remainder of his career at NASA, in particular directing the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo manned spaceflight programmes. He left NASA in 1972 and died in Virginia in 1977.