Well, according to this site, Von Braun had a follow-up to the A9/A10 planned that would have enabled him to place a satellite—or a warhead. Or maybe an Astronaut (Raumnaut?)—in Earth orbit.
The “year” listed in the site is 1948, but I’m not sure if that means he designed it after the war, in 1948; or if he designed it during the war, but only imagined that he’d be able to build one by 1948.
I think I remember seeing some program about secret Nazi Jet/Rocket tech on the History Channel.
The Amerika Bomber was one of the craft mentioned.
Ranchoth, I’m fairly certain that the 1948 date refers to the targeted launch year from the point of about '43ish…otherwise, the Americans would have used it, which they didn’t to the best of my knowledge.
So maybe a Nazi satellite by '48-'50ish? And then maybe the death ray satellite by '52 or '53 (assuming that they were able to work all the bugs out! Steam power? Pumpkins?)
Can you imagine maybe a giant orbiting illuminated Swastika, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes or so, for all to see?
Gives me the willies.
Von Braun is supposed to have said upon the successful completion of a V-2 test, “The rocket worked, unfortunately it landed on the wrong planet.” Supposedly, Von Braun’s goal was always to get to the Moon and that he only worked for the Nazi’s because it helped him further his goals and it beat the alternative (i.e. death). So, Von Braun might have been kicking around various ideas, but I seriously doubt that the higher ups in the Nazi machine would have cared.
I guess in that case, it’s kind of neat that his dream was realised, especially after he was able to work in a much friendlier environment…
However…the following quote is also attributed to von Braun (don’t know if it’s accurate or not)
“I aimed for the moon but sometimes I hit London”
If it is true, was he just accepting that he had no other choice and that he had loftier goals?
The quote is actually, “I aim for the stars, but sometimes I hit London”. It was a black-humored joke that circulated after the film bio Wernher von Braun was released with the English title I Aim for the Stars in 1960.
I doubt if Von Braun himself would have wanted to make jokes about the death and destruction he and his colleagues brought upon London and environs during the war. V2 rockets killed more than 2,500 people and seriously injured almost 6,000.
I’m in the process of reading James Michener’s Space. And in the book they mention the movie I Aim for the Stars (alternate title) and he mentions your quote as coming from a British newspaper review of the movie.
“I just send them up,
who knows where they come down.
It’s not my department.”
Werner von Braun
NO, NO, NO!
“Vonce de rockets go up, who know ver de come down,
Dots not my department, says Verner Von Braun”
– Tom Leher.
How quickly people forget the success of the Amerika Bomber, and the top-secret intensive American project (Project Blue Sky), headed by Robert Goddard, which developed the manned interceptor which shot it down. If the Amerika Bomber had been allowed one more atmospheric skip, Chicago would have been lost, ad one further skip would have most probably eliminated either New York or Washington.
Sometimes I believe that if those funds had not been used by Goddard’s people, and been given to some of the less urgent projects, we may have developed nuclear power before the late 1960s.
Isn’t exploring alternate history grand?
I find it somewhat depressing though, that the foundation for the manned moon shot in 1969 can find its foundations within the despotic Nazi regime.
I thought the Amerika Bomber was shot down with a 1920s style Death Ray.
At least some good came out of it, though.
This is very true Tuckerfan, but I often feel that these links aren’t recognised enough. A lot of people died bringing Von Braun’s vision to life.
Morally, I don’t know what the hell do think about the fact that 20,000 people died making the V2 work - and the fact that we went to the moon as more or less of a direct result. But I guess perhaps not using that technology to benefit people after all that suffering would have been even worse…
The Soviet R2 was an early 50’s missile based on the V2 and could carry the “Geran” radiological warhead see http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/r2.htm
Also WW2 radiological warfare.
“Radiological warfare:the path not taken” by Barton J. Bernstein in Bulletin of the atomic scientists August 1985 pages 44 to 49.
In this the author talks of US interest in radiological weapons from May 1941.
He also mentions the fear raised that the Germans might use radiological weapons, possibly gas, upon allied forces at Normandy.
And that memos were put out asking that any cases of a mild disease with fatigue,nausea and loss of white blood cells to be reported immediately to the surgeon general: and also the reporting of fogging of x-ray film.
Some survey meters and geiger counters were actually taken to the d-day beaches.
He also mentions tests in 1949 of US radiological bombs but with dissapointing results as against the contamination from a normal fission bomb.
Didn’t Churchill also consider radioactive waste as a weapon?
Indeed, if you tried to wipe out ever single piece of technology which had benefitted from military research, we’d all be back in caves eating raw meat.
I dunno about that, Tuckerfan…how would we get the raw meat, in the first place?
Pointy sticks? No, scratch that. Maybe we’ll find a dead cow or something. MMmmm, rancid, raw beef!