V-2 to SATURN V

Seventy years ago Tuesday, the first successful launch of a captured Nazi V-2 rocket took place in White Sands, N.M. The German rocket scientists who designed and built the V-2 during World War II went on to put America on the moon.

Over the summer of 1944, wartime London had become accustomed to V-1 attacks. Londoners called them “doodlebugs.” V-1s were essentially robotic airplanes. They caused plenty of damage — when they found targets — but sentries could detect their approach and sound the alarm. In September of that year, however, the Nazis took the fight up a notch with the next generation of “vergeltungs-waffe,” or “retaliatory weapon,” the V-2 guided missile. The V-2s screamed down from the sky at 3,000 mph. They could be neither seen nor heard until the rocket hit its target.

The first two V-2s, launched Sept. 6, were intended for targets in Belgium, but neither fired properly. It wasn’t until Sept. 8 that the first V-2 hit, southeast of Paris, killing six and injuring 36. An attack on London later that day killed three and injured seven.

Eventually, more than 9,000 V-2s were lofted at Germany’s enemies. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in London alone — 160 in a single hit on a shopping center on Nov. 25, 1944.

The team that developed the V-2 missile, led by Wernher von Braun, went to work for the U.S. after the war. Dozens of captured V-2 rockets were launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Eventually the Army put von Braun and his team to work in Huntsville, Ala., developing a ballistic missile. That work resulted in one of the most reliable U.S. missiles of the day and eventually put the first U.S. satellite in orbit, the first American in space and the first man on the moon.

SATURN IB First flew: 1966 Length: 223 feet Weight: 1.3 million lbs. SATURN I First flew: 1961 Length: 180 feet Weight: 1.1 million lbs. Created by marrying the Saturn I first stage to a new third stage that would also be used in the Saturn V. Used for...

SATURN V First flew: 1967 Length: 363 feet Weight: 6.6 million lbs. The ultimate expression of von Braun’s work is still the most powerful rocket ever flown. Thirteen were flown, including two that boosted crews around the moon, six that landed men on...

White Sands Missile Range Museum Captured V-2 rockets were brought to New Mexico. The first test launch didn’t go so well, but a second on May 10, 1946 few 70 miles high. Tests of V-2 rockets would continue through 1952.