Wernher Von Braun

The V2 rocket began development during 1944 in Germany as a Nazi mega-weapons project Directed by a German aerospace engineer named Wernher Von Braun.

The rockets were built with five parts. 1/5th of the rocket, the tip, was warhead. Another 1/5th of the rocket, right under the tip, was the guidance systems. The next 2/5th's down were the fuel tank and liquid oxygen tank respectively. and the final 1/5th of the rocket was the engine and the stabilizing fins.

The fuel for the engines was a mixture of alcohol and water, I don't know in what proportions.

The alcohol and water mixture specifications delve in to chemistry, I don't know chemistry.

As for liquid oxygen, It is really simple to produce. A coil made usually of copper is submerged in liquid nitrogen and oxygen is pumped through. The oxygen is cooled to near liquid nitrogen like temperatures and liquidizes.

The Germans added certain amounts of fuel to the rocket to launch it certain distances. for example if you have a car that boasts 50 miles per gallon of gas, and you fill it with a gallon of gas, the car will travel near 50 miles. This idea was ingenious solution for simplifying the guidance system so it didn't have to calculate distance traveled. but it was also a flaw because your car will never travel exactly 50 miles. Actually it isn't impossible, but ridiculously unlikely.

The rocket launch out of the atmosphere, run out of fuel, re-enter and crash head first in to the ground detonating the warhead. The warhead had devastating explosive power. when it landed on houses, the houses would be blown apart. And in its place a crater big enough and deep enough to fit a basement without further excavation. Kind of a bad analogy, you can find images of impact sites in Britain and rocket test site explosions in Germany, online. ( search "V2 craters" )

After fascist Germany was beaten into submission by a collaborative effort of democracy and communism, the representative nations of the two governmental ideologies fell out and started a "who's dic... *cough* *cough* nuclear missile is bigger" contest ( that my own uneducated interpretation of the cold war ). which led to a "who's manned space craft is bigger" after the launching of the Russian satellite on 4 October 1957 named "sputnik" or in English... I have results for the translation and it either means "satellite" or "traveler". If you are a Google fan, the translation in satellite. If you are a Wiki fan, the translation is Traveler.

Von Braun was hired by the United States during operation paperclip which lasted 13 years between 1945 and 1959. operation paperclip was a code name created to hide the United States Government's Hypocrisy of waving around anti-Nazi propaganda, and then turning around while everyone was distracted by celebrating the end of the war and hiring 1,600 German scientists who worked for Nazis.

Von Braun was hired early in operation paperclip and sent to the U.S. Navy where he designed satellite launch vehicles. but the Navy was making designs of their own and Von Braun was overshadowed and left out, even though the Navy couldn't make a successful rocket. The government shut down the project even after Von Braun's push to launch his rockets under the guise of benefits to the U.S. Navy and Army by launching satellites with cameras to take pictures from orbit which would provide a huge tactical advantage in large scale warfare. After the project was shut down Von Braun was sent to the Army to design ballistic missiles till 1958.

The Russian "satellite-traveler" was the first object put in to orbit around earth, and because it wasn't American, the United States got butt-Hurt and established NASA the following year on July 29, 1958. They put the first satellite in orbit, so lets put the first man in orbit. thought the U.S.

On April 12, 1961 Russia put the first man in orbit. Though not without difficulties, like the astronauts space suit puffing like a balloon as soon as he left the capsule. It took him several hours to get back in. On may 5, 1961 The U.S. got their astronaut into orbit, on month after Russia.

Since we cant beat you to orbit we will beat you to the moon! exclaims the U.S. finally Von Braun gets the spotlight sitting in the directors chair of the Marshall Space Flight Center, and he became the Chief Architect for the Saturn V Super Heavy Lift-Launch Vehicle which helped get the lander to orbit.