The Space Race: Von Braun And Korolev

The Space Race

The space race was not only the result of many years of mistrust and hostility between the US and USSR, but also the hard work and dreams of leading rocket scientists Wernher Von Braun in the US and Sergei Korolev in the USSR. 1) While astronauts like Yuri Gagarin, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong captivated the world with their great feats in space, Von Braun and Korolev were the true visionaries behind the space race. Initially the two superpowers (the US and USSR) were uninterested in space exploration, however, both Von Braun and Korolev convinced their superiors that their work provided defensive gains, and once their efforts had attracted enough public support there was no turning back. 4) Without their intense interest

in the exploration of space beyond military gain, the space race may have looked much differently, resulting only in a nuclear missile build up, rather than also an interest in putting man in space and then eventually on the moon. 1)
Wernher Von Braun was born on March 23, 1912, to an aristocratic family in Eastern Prussia, which is now Poland.

At a young age Von Braun was given a telescope from his mother, and with this he developed a great passion for astronomy. 5) His interest in science only grew as he dreamed of space travel, and he spent much of his youth experimenting with rockets and propulsion. At the age of 18 he joined the Society of Space Travel (Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR)), and was soon participating in rocket experiments. However, in 1932 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party were coming to power, and Nazi Germany was planning to ban all rocketry experiments and discussion outside of the military. Because of this, Von Braun was pressured into signing a contract with the Reichswehr (Reich Defense) so that he could continue to pursue his interest in rocketry. His job was to develop rockets as military weapons (ballistic missiles), and he would be working for Captain Walter Dornberger. During his first year working at the Reichswehr he also enrolled at Humboldt University of Berlin and he graduated two years later with a Ph.D. in physics. His dissertation discussed the theoretical and practical problems of liquid propellant rocket engines. As well as going to school, Von Braun had also started conducting rocket tests at an artillery range outside of Berlin and some of his VfR colleagues joined him. Together they began work on what would later be called the A-1, which eventually evolved into

the A-2, and then A-3. 2)
Von Braun’s team had grown to eighty members by 1935, and his team’s success was very evident. Not only were they launching liquid-fueled engines, but also their engines were consistently working with great success. At this point, due to their growing numbers, they were relocated to a much bigger facility constructed in a more secluded part of Germany, by the shores of the Baltic Sea. It was called the Peenemunde Rocket Center. Here, where over 2,000 scientists and 4,000 other personnel would work, the A-4, also known as the V-2, was born. 2) By 1937, Von Braun was the leader of the Nazi rocket program, and Head of the Peenemunde Rocket Center. 6) He joined the SS in 1940 under the desire of Heinrich Himmler, but stayed out of politics. It took several years before the V-2 missile was successfully launched on October 3, 1942, and two more before it was deployed. In 1944 Von Braun was arrested and imprisoned on the accusation of having declared his main interest in the V-2 as space travel, and not weaponry, however, due to his importance he was soon released. 2) The V-2 was Adolf Hitler’s last throw of the dice before the end of the war, and in Britain which was the main focus of the V-2 attack, over 9,000 Brits were killed and that excludes the estimated 12,000 badly treated laborers and concentration camp prisoner killed while making the missiles. 3)
By early 1945 the Russians were closing in on Peenemunde from the east, and it was clear that Germany would lose the war. At this point Von Braun’s staffs were under the direct command of the SS, and Von Braun knew his options were limited. If they did nothing, either the Russians would take him and the rest of his team as prisoners, the SS would have them shot so that the Russians couldn’t take them, or they would be killed in combat. Von Braun wanted to continue his work in rocketry, and held a meeting with the other top officials at Peenemunde, where they decided they would have the best chances of continuing there work by surrendering to the Americans. However this would not be possible for another few months as the SS had them under strict guard. Von Braun was given orders to destroy all research papers and important equipment before evacuating Peenemunde, but he secretly had them smuggled to safety. Eventually Von Braun was able to convince the head of the SS guard, who had 500 of the top scientists including Von Braun in a heavily guarded interment camp, that if the camp were to be bombed by Allied aircraft, one bomb would wipe out every one of the Third Reich’s top rocket scientists. The SS guard decided it would in fact be best to let the scientists out of the camp. 2) Von Braun then hid in Bavaria with a group of his fellow scientists until he heard news of Hitler’s death on May 1st, 1945. He then sent his brother Magnus, who knew a little English to announce their surrender to the US army, and by nightfall of the next day they were in the hands of American solders. 5)
As Von Braun had hoped, mere months after his surrender, the US government offered him funds to develop an Americanized version of the V-2.

5) This was made possible by Operation Paperclip, in which the US military rounded up Nazi scientists, and V-2 missiles at the end of the war, brought them back to the States, and brushed their Nazi pasts and war crimes under the rug, so that they could use them. 12) Von Braun in particular had been a part of the SS and had been aware of the V-2 factories, in which many concentration camp laborers were worked to death, and he had even visited it. If he had not had the brains that he did, there is no question that he would have been sentenced to death like the rest of the SS. But even with his dark past, the work he did in America soon granted him a reputation, and the public took a liking to him.

1)
Through Operation Paperclip, the US had managed to get many of the best scientists from Germany including Von Braun at the end of the war, and they had also taken whatever else they could that would benefit their military, including V-2 parts. The Russians had taken the facilities where the V-2 had been built, and where some V-2 missiles were left. This meant that while the US had the scientists who could rebuild the V-2 and other things gathered in Operation Paperclip, the USSR had V-2 missiles that they could replicate and access to the facilities where they were produced. 1)
On August 6th, and 7th, 1945 the US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ultimately ending the war in Japan, but killing hundreds of thousands in the process. At this the USSR felt threatened, for now the US had both Von Braun, and the atomic bomb, and this soon evolved into an arms race between the two superpowers of the world, and a Cold War. The USSR was afraid of the US’s clear ability to bomb them sense the US had army bases all around the world, and to rival this, not only did the USSR want their own nuclear device, but they also wanted an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could travel all the way to the US, and target any one of its major cities. The man with the ability to create such a weapon was Russian scientist Sergei Korolev. 1)
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was born on January 12th, 1907, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. His father was a teacher of Russian literature. From a young age Korolev was fascinated with aviation, and at the age of 17 he designed his first glider. 8) In 1924 he attended Kiev Polytechnic Institute, and then two years later transferred to the Moscow Higher Technical University (MVTU), the best engineering college in Russia, often compared to the US’s MIT. 9) There he was involved in the design and construction of a series of ambitious gliders meant to break the record for time spent in the stratosphere. 10) Andrey Tupolev, a famous engineer and aircraft designer supervised him during this time, and this acquaintance benefited Korolev greatly. 11)
In 1929 Korolev graduated from MVTU. 9) He was now interested in the concept of rocket propelled aircraft, and in 1931, with the help of a fellow scientist Friedrich Tsander, founded the Jet Propulsion Research Group, GIRD (Group for Investigation of Reactive Motion). 9) 10) This was one of the earliest state sponsored centers for rocket development in the USSR, and they developed the GIRD-9 and 10, which were the first Soviet liquid-fueled rockets. 9) 8) However, in 1933 the military took over the institute, and it became known as RNII. 8) While Korolev was in charge of aerospace structures, his colleague, Valentin Glushko was responsible for propulsion systems. Together they were able to design a series of rocket-propelled missiles, and gliders, as well as the first Soviet piloted rocket-powered glider, the RP-318. But by the mid 1930’s Russia was going through hard times, as the horrific great purges began under Stalin, and in 1938, Glushko was arrested, follow by Korolev a few months later. Glushko had denounced Korolev in order to reduce his sentence, resulting in Korolev getting a sentence of 10 years forced labor, basically a death sentence. Obviously this did not come off as a kind gesture, and the two of them were forever after opposed to each other. 8) Korolev was tortured into confession of charges he didn’t commit, and then spent over two years in a variety of jails, and four months in the Gulag. 8) 11) During this time Korolev went through a change, he was unjustly punished with beating and harsh conditions, and his health and moral were greatly weakened. If it weren’t for his strong character and boxing skills he might not have made it through. Due to malnutrition he almost died in Siberia, and for the rest of his life he looked at life in a cynical and gloomy way. 11) Stalin had however recognized the importance of aeronautical engineers, with the imminent threat of war against Hitler and a system of sharashkas was put in place, where jailed talent could be exploited. 10) Fortunately for Korolev, Andrei Tupolev, his former supervisor and colleague, was a political prisoner as well, and he was the head of one of the prison design bureaus known as sharashkas. Tupolev requested Korolev for his team, and after some time Korolev was allowed to join, however by this time, although he would live many more years, his health had been ruined. 8)
Forced to work on military projects, Korolev helped Tupolev develop the Tupolev Tu-2 bomber and the Petlyakov dive-bomber. 11) In 1944 Korolev was put in charge of his own team, and was given a crew of 60 engineers, and three days to come up with a draft project for a missile design equivalent to the Nazi’s V-2 missile. 9) 10) Although he could not fully match it, he did manage to come up with a design with one quarter the range of the V-2, 75km. 9) It was a two stage design that used lox/alcohol propellants, and was later refined into the D-1 and D-2 rockets. 10) Along with fellow engineers, Tupolev, and Glushko, Korolev was released from prison that year, however his charges were not fully dropped until 1957, and he continued his work on rocket engines at the bureau for another year. 11)