Von Braun got things done. NASA formed in 1958, we landed on the moon in 1969. He created the Saturn 1, 1B and Saturn V; advances in rocket science that have not been matched in rocket history.
And what has NASA done since it's Glory Days of sending man to the moon? Well, we have Muslim Outreach, the Shuttle program - and now after decades of much ado about little - we are once again stretching our wings and working towards Mars.
Unfortunately, NASA is filled with politics. Every year, depending who is in office, funding is either granted, or cut. When you look at the bases NASA built when it was funded, with the will of the people; and you see the advances that were made, it's a pale shadow of what it was and should be. Much of what SpaceX has accomplished, is due to what NASA has done to help Musk. When you attract the best minds and focus them all on a technically difficult task; ideas foment new ideas, and new technologies spring into life. Ideas never imagined, such as Friction Stir Welding,
You are correct. von Braun was essential to everything our space program accomplished.
I have read a LOT of books about Nazis, the Nazi era, etc. and I can't remember von Braun's name even being mentioned in any of those sources, must less as among the Nazis of influence or importance.
Totalitarian governments made /make even earning a living a conflict of conscience.
They made Party membership essential to live, so many "Party members" were merely card-carrying and not really believing, committed "Nazis".
OTOH J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb" was a spy who did much damage to his native country and to world peace by sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviets.
"When you attract the best minds and focus them all on a technically difficult task; ideas foment new ideas, and new technologies spring into life."
Best minds is the key; diversity hires not based on absolute merit, well . . . you have already figured out the rest of the story.
OH MY! I started reading military bios when I was in junior high, and history and bios since then. I didn't keep a list. All the standards of course, and many more, lesser known and not much known.
Von Braun got things done. NASA formed in 1958, we landed on the moon in 1969. He created the Saturn 1, 1B and Saturn V; advances in rocket science that have not been matched in rocket history.
And what has NASA done since it's Glory Days of sending man to the moon? Well, we have Muslim Outreach, the Shuttle program - and now after decades of much ado about little - we are once again stretching our wings and working towards Mars.
Unfortunately, NASA is filled with politics. Every year, depending who is in office, funding is either granted, or cut. When you look at the bases NASA built when it was funded, with the will of the people; and you see the advances that were made, it's a pale shadow of what it was and should be. Much of what SpaceX has accomplished, is due to what NASA has done to help Musk. When you attract the best minds and focus them all on a technically difficult task; ideas foment new ideas, and new technologies spring into life. Ideas never imagined, such as Friction Stir Welding,
You are correct. von Braun was essential to everything our space program accomplished.
I have read a LOT of books about Nazis, the Nazi era, etc. and I can't remember von Braun's name even being mentioned in any of those sources, must less as among the Nazis of influence or importance.
Totalitarian governments made /make even earning a living a conflict of conscience. They made Party membership essential to live, so many "Party members" were merely card-carrying and not really believing, committed "Nazis".
OTOH J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb" was a spy who did much damage to his native country and to world peace by sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviets.
"When you attract the best minds and focus them all on a technically difficult task; ideas foment new ideas, and new technologies spring into life."
Best minds is the key; diversity hires not based on absolute merit, well . . . you have already figured out the rest of the story.
Beautifully stated. Not an ounce of disagreement. Just wish NASA could divorce itself from the political and do what it’s created to do
It is a mere shadow of its former self, very sad!
And who wrote those books?
OH MY! I started reading military bios when I was in junior high, and history and bios since then. I didn't keep a list. All the standards of course, and many more, lesser known and not much known.