New Horizons Mission to Pluto

[Beati Dogu]

Nazi Germany spent the equivalent on rocket R&D as to what the Americans spent on the Manhattan Project. Their work was the basis for the rocket programs in the US and Soviet Union. Peenemunde & the main V-2 facility at Nordhausen were studied and stripped. Then there's Von Braun, Oberth and hundreds of other scientists that were forcibly or otherwise induced to carry on for new masters.

[Eric Mc]

Beati Dogu said:

Nazi Germany spent the equivalent on rocket R&D as to what the Americans spent on the Manhattan Project. Their work was the basis for the rocket programs in the US and Soviet Union. Peenemunde & the main V-2 facility at Nordhausen were studied and stripped. Then there's Von Braun, Oberth and hundreds of other scientists that were forcibly or otherwise induced to carry on for new masters.

The US and the USSR certainly gleaned what they could from the German rocket research work but quite a few rocket programmes in the US and the USSR were pretty independent of that German research - using different types of rocket motors, different types of fuels , different types of guidance and control systems and different methods of construction.

It's very unfair and disingenuous to allocate ALL of the US and USSR rocket technology to Germans.

[Beati Dogu]

Sure, I don't doubt they would have made it themselves in time. The V-2 allowed them a good starting point though, much like the later SCUD design has allowed the likes of Iran and North Korea to do the same.

Having the eventual Soviet rocket chief designer, Sergei Korolev, spend 6 years rotting in the GULAG system, didn't really help themselves either. He wasn't the only rocket scientist they imprisoned or executed either.

Edited by Beati Dogu on Wednesday 13th March 13:53

[Eric Mc]

And there were some important American rocket pioneers too - Goddard and Truax for a start - not to mention JPL in Pasadena and the Naval Rocket Research Laboratory. These were all very active organsations in the 1930s and 40s - and the Americans led the way in guidance and telemetry as well.

Getting the German knowledge was extremely helpful and certainly kickstarted some areas of rocket technology. But the US was making headway too.