Wernher Von Braun: The Original (U.S.) Rocket Scientist

Childhood portrait of Von Braun, center, with his brothers

Von Braun was among a famous group of rocket experimenters in Germany in the 1930s. He is shown second from right in this photo

Walter Dornberger, Friedrich Olbricht, Wilhelm von Leeb, and von Braun at Peenem

This is a photo of Von Braun (with arm in cast) surrendering to the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Personnel in Europe, April 1945.

Undated image most likely from the 1950s, showing a young Von Braun holding a model of a V-2 rocket.

Von Braun, right, is shown in this photograph taken in the 1950s with Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger. The two are shown discussing concepts for a Walt Disney television special on the exploration of space.

(From left to right) Martin Schilling, Ernst Stuhlinger, and Von Braun signing certificates of citizenship in April 1955.

In this 1959 photo, Von Braun, second from left, is shown conferring with Don Ostrander, left, a NASA Headquarters Official; Dr. Eberhard Rees, third from left; and General John A. Barclay, who commanded the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville. Years later Dr. Rees would follow Dr. Von Braun as Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

William Picketing, James Van Allen, and German scientist Wernher von Braun (from L to R) brandish a model of the first American satellite 'Explorer 1', 31 January 1958 after the satellite was launched of by a 'Jupiter C' rocket at Cap Canaveral Space Center. Wernher von Braun's team developed the Jupiter-C, a modified Redstone rocket, which successfully launched Explorer 1. This event signaled the birth of America's space program. Von Braun, who was pivotal in Germany's pre-war rocket development program and was responsible for the design and realization of the V-2 combat rocket during World War II, entered the United States at the end of the war through the then-secret Operation Paperclip.

Von Braun, right, worked directly with America's first seven astronauts. This photo is believed to have been taken about 1959 in the Fabrication Laboratory of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville. The astronauts are, from left, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton

This photograph shows Von Braun, second from the left, in the blockhouse at the Florida launch facilities on March 3, 1959. He and others gathered for the launch of the Pioneer IV satellite. On the left of Von Braun is Kurt Debus, who managed the Florida launch facilities. To the right of Von Braun is Army General John B. Medaris. Next to him is General John Barclay. At this time, Von Braun and his associates were members of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville.

This image, believed to have been taken about 1960, shows Von Braun standing in front of a group of Army missiles at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville.

As Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, Von Braun examines a test set up in the Center's Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. Photo from 1961.

An undated photo showing Von Braun in the Kennedy Space Center launch control center. He is seated alone and apparently reviewing a manual on launch procedures or space hardware.

Von Braun greeting President Kennedy upon his arrival at the Marshall Space Flight Center on September 12, 1962.

Von Braun and astronaut Gordon Cooper. They are shown in the control room during the launch of the first manned Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle. This was the mission that launched Alan Shepard.

Von Braun is shown in his office with a display of rocket models in photo from 1962.

Von Braun with President Kennedy at Redstone Arsenal in 1963.

This photograph was published June 9, 1965, by the Marshall Center. Pictured from left to right are Alabama Governor George Wallace, NASA Administrator James Webb, and Von Braun.

This photograph was published by the Marshall Center on December 20, 1967. It shows President Lyndon Johnson touring the Marshall Center's Michoud Assembly Facility.

This photo appeared on September 18, 1968, in the Marshall Star, the internal newspaper published by the Marshall Space Flight Center. The caption read, "Dr. Wernher von Braun gets the feel of being weightless in a recent airplane flight. He experienced the 'no-gravity' condition aboard an Air Force KC-135 over Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The aircraft achieves about 30 seconds of weightlessness by flying a special arc-like path."

Von Braun with the F-1 engines of the Saturn V first stage at the US Space and Rocket Center

Von Braun appears to be in the launch control facilities at the Kennedy Space Center in undated photo likely taken in the late 1960s.

This photograph was taken after Von Braun moved from his post as Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center to Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning at NASA Headquarters. On June 27, 1970, he visited the Marshall Center again to look at a mockup of the spacecraft that would later be known as Skylab

Von Braun and William R. Lucas, the first and third Marshall Space Flight Center directors, viewing a Space Shuttle model in 1974

Huntsville, Alabama was home to the facilities the United States government used to develop the country's first space vehicles. For twenty years, Von Braun, right, focused the community's attention on space-related civic projects. He is shown here with his associate Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger. The photo was taken in Huntsville in 1956 at the Observatory of the Rocket City Astronomical Association.