This is because air-resistance is, respectively, lesser and non-existent in those areas. ![]() For almost a decade, no serious attempt was made for any peaceful use of space vehicles as both sides focused on improving the range, accuracy, and warhead size of rockets.īut by the mid-1950s, the latest rockets were verging on 'intercontinental' range and were beginning to skirt through the upper atmosphere or even Outer Space as a way of increasing their range. In any event, military demands were put ahead of any dreams anyone yet had about Moon-shots. In the long term the US was also considering using them for delivering nuclear weapons to the Soviet Union, and while the Soviets entertained similar thoughts they had yet to actually develop nuclear weapons. The US wanted to do this as a means of bombarding Soviet cities, and the Soviets wanted their own for use as a form of ultra long-range artillery for use in support of military operations. The immediate goal of both sides was not space exploration, but rather the development of better Ballistic Missiles. Even some of his own cosmonauts were unaware of his name prior to his death in 1966. ![]() The USSR was characteristically paranoid about Korolev's identity he was referred to only as the "Chief Designer" to shield him from US espionage. Native rocket researcher and former gulag resident Sergey Korolyov ( Sergei Korolev) was selected note (though "conscripted" may be a better description than "selected" he did get Colonel rank, though) to turn the massive influx of workers and material into an independent Soviet military rocket program. Operation Osoaviakhim (the NKGB analogue to Paperclip) wound up with mostly mid-level engineers and technicians, and a large amount of parts and manufacturing equipment from the manufacturing bases (which mostly ended up in the Soviet sector of Germany). Paperclip also claimed Werner Heisenberg and most of the personnel from Nazi Germany's fractured nuclear programmes. The Americans ended up with von Braun and most of his research staff and vital papers, having spirited them and all other useful scientific personnel away from Europe under the OSS's "Operation Paperclip" (it didn't hurt that the team was so terrified of the Soviets that in the last days of the war von Braun falsified orders to get them closer to the Western Allies). The Soviets also attempted to capture German scientists, but were largely unsuccessful and had to console themselves with some of the V2 test sites and factories. More people died building the factories and the rockets themselves than military and civilian deaths from their actual use. With the end of WWII, the vast majority of these German scientists ended up in the USA regardless of their War Crimes note Speer's Armaments Ministry used Death-through-Work Camp and Slave Labour for V2 production. Soon after, it was fitted with a payload of high-explosives and fired at London and other Allied targets, becoming the world's first practical ballistic missile as well. The V2, first successfully launched in 1942, became the first man-made object to make it out of Earth's atmosphere. ![]() ![]() It was the work of these scientists during World War II which eventually led to the creation of the V1 "buzz bomb" (a precursor to the modern cruise missile), and later the infamous V2 rocket. Many prominent scientists (most eminently Wernher von Braun) were accordingly recruited into large-scale rocket development in 1932. The Treaty of Versailles having banned them from research on cannons, the German Army instead began experimenting with the use of rocket-propelled artillery. The start of the Space Race actually dates back to the 1930s. Tom Lehrer, " Wernher von Braun ", That Was the Year That Was
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