Moscow, which instead was precisely what the Pentagon was looking for. One
year before, President Eisenhower had announced that the US would soon launch
an artificial satellite as a scientific gift for humankind, but in reality, it would also
solve a basic artillery problem.
In November 1956, on a sunny November day down in Alabama, O’Keefe went
to Huntsville not to talk about the stars, but instead to attend an important and confidential meeting. He drove towards the Redstone Arsenal, a closed area where the
US Army had hidden one of its most valuable booty of WWII: the German Rocket
Team, a group of 120 engineers that had built and launched hundreds of V2 rockets.
In 1945, the team had escaped Hitler’s regime and entered Allied territory, surrendering to a US patrol. One of the members later said that they decided to surrender
to the Americans because they despised the French, were terrified by the Soviets,
and had no doubt that the British would hang them after a short court trial.
The Germans were led by the young genius Werner von Braun, an aristocratic,
erudite and pragmatic leader who succeeded in moving his entire organization to
the US just before the Russian entered northern Germany, where they were assembling the rockets. Some of the more far-sighted US generals understood that those
people were the designers of the weapons of the future. They were welcomed into
the US but sent to work and live in a deserted site near White Sands, New Mexico.
There, von Braun and his team started working relentlessly on some of the war
V2s that they had brought with them, until one of the rockets accidentally fell near
the town of Juarez. Luckily, the V2 fell down in a cemetery and there were no
casualties, but the accident made clear that the Germans needed more space to
work. So, the Pentagon decided to launch its missiles into the Atlantic from the
coast of Florida. In addition, the Germans were moved to an old arsenal outside of
Huntsville, Alabama, to build rockets and test the engines.
On that November morning in Huntsville, von Braun was supposed to host a
meeting with his team and a group of military and scientists – among them
O’Keefe. Indeed, the American astronomer shared something in common with the
German scientist: a great motivation, a sort of obsession for traveling into space
and uncovering the secrets of the universe. These ideals overcame any practical,
often military application of their own jobs.
Years before, von Braun had hidden this secret well from the SS General
Heinrich Himmler, who had realized too late that the young engineer was more
interested in making a powerful rocket than a weapon. And similarly, the US generals were convinced that they were using von Braun for their purposes, but in a
way, the opposite was true. With the same scientific curiosity, O’Keefe was more
fascinated by the idea of an artificial moon to be used for astronomy rather than
for calculating precisely how to bomb Moscow.
During that meeting, O’Keefe was stunned by the personality of von Braun. Von
Braun was pragmatic, direct, and incredibly efficient. When the meeting, ended the
12 The Space Race: Moondust
year before, President Eisenhower had announced that the US would soon launch
an artificial satellite as a scientific gift for humankind, but in reality, it would also
solve a basic artillery problem.
In November 1956, on a sunny November day down in Alabama, O’Keefe went
to Huntsville not to talk about the stars, but instead to attend an important and confidential meeting. He drove towards the Redstone Arsenal, a closed area where the
US Army had hidden one of its most valuable booty of WWII: the German Rocket
Team, a group of 120 engineers that had built and launched hundreds of V2 rockets.
In 1945, the team had escaped Hitler’s regime and entered Allied territory, surrendering to a US patrol. One of the members later said that they decided to surrender
to the Americans because they despised the French, were terrified by the Soviets,
and had no doubt that the British would hang them after a short court trial.
The Germans were led by the young genius Werner von Braun, an aristocratic,
erudite and pragmatic leader who succeeded in moving his entire organization to
the US just before the Russian entered northern Germany, where they were assembling the rockets. Some of the more far-sighted US generals understood that those
people were the designers of the weapons of the future. They were welcomed into
the US but sent to work and live in a deserted site near White Sands, New Mexico.
There, von Braun and his team started working relentlessly on some of the war
V2s that they had brought with them, until one of the rockets accidentally fell near
the town of Juarez. Luckily, the V2 fell down in a cemetery and there were no
casualties, but the accident made clear that the Germans needed more space to
work. So, the Pentagon decided to launch its missiles into the Atlantic from the
coast of Florida. In addition, the Germans were moved to an old arsenal outside of
Huntsville, Alabama, to build rockets and test the engines.
On that November morning in Huntsville, von Braun was supposed to host a
meeting with his team and a group of military and scientists – among them
O’Keefe. Indeed, the American astronomer shared something in common with the
German scientist: a great motivation, a sort of obsession for traveling into space
and uncovering the secrets of the universe. These ideals overcame any practical,
often military application of their own jobs.
Years before, von Braun had hidden this secret well from the SS General
Heinrich Himmler, who had realized too late that the young engineer was more
interested in making a powerful rocket than a weapon. And similarly, the US generals were convinced that they were using von Braun for their purposes, but in a
way, the opposite was true. With the same scientific curiosity, O’Keefe was more
fascinated by the idea of an artificial moon to be used for astronomy rather than
for calculating precisely how to bomb Moscow.
During that meeting, O’Keefe was stunned by the personality of von Braun. Von
Braun was pragmatic, direct, and incredibly efficient. When the meeting, ended the
12 The Space Race: Moondust