As a long-time follower of Wernher von Braun, I have reservations about Mrs. Rosin's claims. Von Braun died in 1977 and I never was aware of him expressing these views in his lifetime. About half a century later, we have alleged final words being repeated now. Rosin herself is today 82. Interestingly, she is a real scientist and former executive at Fairchild Industries, where von Braun worked prior to his death. And they worked together, no objection to that.
But Mrs. Rosin has an axe to grind. She was involved in activism against anti-satellite weapons and the Strategic Defense Initiative. For example, she presents von Braun as characterizing the danger of Soviet space weapons as lies, but they were real enough. The Soviets had developed a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) in the 1960s, which would have been able to place a nuclear warhead into a polar orbit, crossing over the south pole to avoid U.S. early warning radars and de-orbit onto a target. It was not deployed. By the 1980s, they had developed a Co-Orbital Anti-Satellite weapon, capable of homing on a target and destroying it with a fragmentation warhead. It was probably not deployed, but no one can say that it wasn't put into storage for readiness. They had tested a military space station satellite with an automatic cannon. So, the threat was real, not a paper tiger. (Having worked in the Strategic Defense Initiative and helped develop relevant technology, I don't regard opposition to orbital strategic defense systems as being in the best interest of our nation and population.)
Threats of collision with orbital bodies have been relatively frequent and disturbing events in recent decades, though they have missed the Earth, thank God. (She refers to asteroids, but large meteoroids are bad enough. See a famous example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_Crater) They are no lie, and---in my opinion---the work to cope with such a threat is mostly dilatory and abstract, with no sense of urgency.
She also seems to be involved with the UFO enthusiast movement (e.g., Steven Greer). Her Wikipedia entry is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Rosin What I see is someone exploiting her relationship with a prominent figure, alleging their final remarks on the strength of her word alone, and using it as a pretext for publicity.
As a long-time follower of Wernher von Braun, I have reservations about Mrs. Rosin's claims. Von Braun died in 1977 and I never was aware of him expressing these views in his lifetime. About half a century later, we have alleged final words being repeated now. Rosin herself is today 82. Interestingly, she is a real scientist and former executive at Fairchild Industries, where von Braun worked prior to his death. And they worked together, no objection to that.
But Mrs. Rosin has an axe to grind. She was involved in activism against anti-satellite weapons and the Strategic Defense Initiative. For example, she presents von Braun as characterizing the danger of Soviet space weapons as lies, but they were real enough. The Soviets had developed a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) in the 1960s, which would have been able to place a nuclear warhead into a polar orbit, crossing over the south pole to avoid U.S. early warning radars and de-orbit onto a target. It was not deployed. By the 1980s, they had developed a Co-Orbital Anti-Satellite weapon, capable of homing on a target and destroying it with a fragmentation warhead. It was probably not deployed, but no one can say that it wasn't put into storage for readiness. They had tested a military space station satellite with an automatic cannon. So, the threat was real, not a paper tiger. (Having worked in the Strategic Defense Initiative and helped develop relevant technology, I don't regard opposition to orbital strategic defense systems as being in the best interest of our nation and population.)
Threats of collision with orbital bodies have been relatively frequent and disturbing events in recent decades, though they have missed the Earth, thank God. (She refers to asteroids, but large meteoroids are bad enough. See a famous example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_Crater) They are no lie, and---in my opinion---the work to cope with such a threat is mostly dilatory and abstract, with no sense of urgency.
She also seems to be involved with the UFO enthusiast movement (e.g., Steven Greer). Her Wikipedia entry is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Rosin What I see is someone exploiting her relationship with a prominent figure, alleging their final remarks on the strength of her word alone, and using it as a pretext for publicity.