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The True Story of How Nazis Invented the Space Program

Summarizing Forward · Published Monday, January 25, 2016
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JL;DR SUMMARY Ezra Glinter reviews Amy Shira Teitel's "Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight Before NASA," which explores the historical interplay between military support and scientific advancements in rocketry. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Soviet Union  Nazi Germany  Cold War  Nasa  Wernher Von Braun  Military Influence  Space Program  V 2 Rocket  Amy Shira Teitel  Moral Implications In Science 

Places mentioned

Peenemünde, Brandenburg, Germany
"This part of the book, which describes the flight from the rocket development site of Peenemnde of some 525 people and their families under the cover of a fake SS mission cooked up by a 33-year-old von Braun on the basis of phony letterhead, is the most riveting section."
United Kingdom
"In the aftermath of the war, the United States brought over some 350 German scientists and their families, including von Brauns military superior, Walter Dornberger, who made his way to the U.S. after being detained for two years by Great Britain as a possible war criminal."
Normandy, Normandie, France
"By the time the infamous V-2s were ready to fly, it was too late for Germany the Allies had landed at Normandy and the Soviets were advancing on the East but the Germans were able to do damage to Britain and Belgium nonetheless."
Belgium
"By the time the infamous V-2s were ready to fly, it was too late for Germany the Allies had landed at Normandy and the Soviets were advancing on the East but the Germans were able to do damage to Britain and Belgium nonetheless."
United States
"Only with the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in October 1957 did the US realize how far behind it lagged, leading Congress and then-President Eisenhower to consolidate the various rocketry and aeronautics programs into a single agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration."

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