German-American Rocket Expert 1912-1977

Born in Wirsitz, Germany, on March 23, 1912, Wernher von Braun progressed from a student who failed mathematics and physics while spending too much time building his car to the world's foremost rocket engineer.

Inspired by Hermann Oberth's Rocket into Planetary Space (1923) and a telescope from his mother, von Braun decided to become a space pioneer by designing rockets and realized that he would need mathematics to succeed. He joined a German rocket society whose work had drawn the attention of the German army. In 1932 von Braun went to work for the ordnance department, designing ballistic missiles. During that period he earned a doctorate in physics, at the age of twenty-two, from the University of Berlin.

By 1941 von Braun had designed the A-4, followed by the V-2, which was used in World War II. When he learned that his rockets were being...