THE SPACE RACE
of thousands of people in many organizations worked in the American
and Soviet space programs. There were dreamers, brilliant engineers,
and talented managers on both sides, but the careers of two individuals
with important technical and managerial roles illustrate some of
the differences. The American was a well-known personality in the
highly publicized U.S. civilian space program. The Russian was known
officially as the anonymous Chief Designer and was not publicly
identified in the secretive Soviet system until after his death.
VON BRAUN (1912-1977)
after NASA was created, the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency research
group led by Wernher von Braun was transferred to the civilian space
agency, and in 1960 it became the core of NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
1970 von Braun served as the first director of the Marshall Center,
which was responsible for developing rocket engines and launch vehicles,
including the American "Moon rocket," the giant Saturn
Braun was an avid proponent of space exploration. In the 1950s he
collaborated on a series of popular magazine articles and television
shows depicting future space travel.
of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Von Braun Collection
about von Braun's early career in rocketry in both Germany and the
United States is presented with the V-2
a manager and public figure, Wernher von Braun stayed close to the
work of engineering and design, using this slide rule for calculations.
Albert Nestler A.G., Germany
the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Von Braun Collection