March 9, 1955 forty-two million Americans — one quarter of the then population of the United States — clung to the screens to see the new TV series from Disney. They did not have a dancing mouse, the princesses, who are in danger, or orphaned animals. Man in Space (“Man in space”) led a pleasant, warm and friendly rocket engineer, setting out their views on the future of space exploration. The man who designed the rocket “FAU-2”, also helped America to reach the moon. And he had much deeper plans, much ahead of its time.
Surrounded by beautiful cobbled models of spacecraft and futuristic works, Werner von Braun turned to the audience, talking about his plan to build a missile that can accommodate passengers in the next 10 years. The program included a pretty dramatic animation and suspenseful orchestral score, full-sized spacesuits and detailed schematics.
Ten years earlier von Braun led the development of Hitler’s missiles “V-2” ballistic missile, built by slave labor and destruction aimed at civilians throughout Europe. Now he was a role model for America’s space program and dinner guest in homes throughout the country.
Opinions about a German rocket engineer today, perhaps even more divided than it was in the 1950s. Some historians argue that it was immoral opportunist — exploiting the desire of Hitler to get futuristic weapons to meet their own ambitions of space exploration. For many he remains a hero and space visionary, who won the race for the moon and made for America route to the stars.
Whatever you may think about this man, the fact remains that 60 years after those transfers, the tracks still lead to the paradigm of von Braun. In a nutshell, these are the steps that an engineer has planned for mankind in space, with the Shuttle and space station, followed by missions to the moon and Mars. In some ways it can be compared with Tsiolkovsky: a man also ahead of his time.
“He tried to explain to us the architecture of how to implement, make possible space flight, explained Michael Neufeld, senior curator of the Smithsonian national Museum of air and space in Washington, is the author of three books and numerous articles about von Braun, the resource BBC. — He was obsessed with the Moon since childhood”.
“His plan had a huge impact in the 60s and continues to live, says Neufeld. — When it come to the moon project, which he inspired, there was no need to strictly follow the chain Shuttle, moon, Mars, but for many NASA engineers, it was a logical program of space exploration by man.”
The Shuttle without the station
During the 60-ies of the von Braun worked on the development of the giant rocket “Saturn-5”, which was to take man to the moon. But in the thoughts of some of the American space Agency, it was a diversion.
“NASA attempted to return to the script, says Noufel. — In the late 60-ies of the Space Task Group recommended to President Nixon to build the space Shuttle and space station, and after to prepare for expeditions to the moon again and to Mars”.
With a victory in the lunar race and the reduction of budgets from all this it appeared only program space Shuttle — a reusable spacecraft, which was to service the space station. But without the space station. “Not really an excuse to acquire it,” says Neufeld. And yet the paradigm of von Braun remained close for many people.
Von Braun died of cancer at the age of 65 in 1977, four years before the first flight of a space Shuttle. But his plan lives. “NASA has returned to the idea of a space station, and then President Bush stood on the steps of the Museum in 1989 and said we’re going back to the moon and to Mars, says Neufeld. — However, it was also a failure.”
In the minds of many, however, step-by-step movement von Braun to Mars will not go away. “NASA continues to come back, says Neufeld. — “What do we do now?” is the age-old problem for NASA, because the future of space flight has always remained a sort of dream believers.”
But believers like very much, and now, perhaps, they have every reason to be optimistic. NASA has a whole Department dedicated to these future steps.
“Von Braun opened the office in the 1960s, says Les Johnson, the technical Advisor on thought leadership in the Space center at NASA Marshall in Alabama. — Our task is to continue, it launched a direct hereditary line of what he was doing.
I have a conference report 1964, which was the moon — and even before the project “Gemini” — and he’s already told his people to start planning a trip to Mars. If I could compare it with what we are doing now, most of the issues with which we struggle now, he set out in 1964″.
Strong leadership
The Parallels are striking. Recently, the office Johnson was faced with the problems of building a new Space Launch System (SLS) is the first rocket since farbrausch “Saturn-5”, capable of lifting humans beyond low earth orbit, which will likely allow us to return to the moon and take on Mars.
Johnson believes that, in addition to forward-thinking ideas von Braun, we should also admire his leadership qualities. “Whenever you have a team of people working towards a common goal — whether it’s a team of ten people in a small business or tens of thousands, as in the project “Apollo” — you need someone who will follow her every move, to have a General vision of all, says Johnson. — That’s the difference between a leader and Manager if you will of the leader that determines the course, the Manager (i.e. the Manager) will have nothing to manage.”
If you ignore the inconvenient fact that America was thrown a few steps back from the times of the lunar program, it appears that we continue to follow the paradigm of von Braun. The US built the Shuttle and space station, now it’s time to go to the moon (again) and Mars.
This was the official agenda during last year’s launch of a new spacecraft “Orion” and ongoing development of the SLS. The new head of the European space Agency, Jan Werner, also spoke about his plans to build a settlement on the moon.
Johnson believes that the future of space. “We need to move, to explore, to go beyond the limits of the Earth.”
Johnson, however, cautions on the subject of vision in General. “Visionary man is a weak spot, so I get nervous when someone says “the great leader will get us all out of this”. Indeed, in contrast to the days of von Braun, the exploration of deep space will most likely be international in nature — include the USA, Europe, Russia, Japan, Canada and maybe even China and India. The division of responsibilities and diversification approaches may be a more solid Foundation for the future.
Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that there is more to say about von Braun 60 years after those disney shows and almost 40 years after his death. Even rivals in the private space race Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk mention von Braun more often than anyone else.
“I’m surprised it’s been forgotten — admits Neufeld. — This question is partly cosmic seer, and partly Nazi — he bad either a Nazi, or our space hero, and the fact that he can be both at the same time, somehow can’t grasp. He popularized the space in the 50-60’s. It remains one of the masterminds of our vision of future space programmes”.
How can you not remember the old disney adage: when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. Once.