The production seldom ran smoothly. ibid.
The prime target of the destructive weapon was London. On September 7th 1944 the first V2 struck at the heart of the British capital. ibid.
Did Churchill know more about Hitler’s plans for the V3 than is known today? ibid.
An alpine fortress stretching into northern Austria … Fear of wonder weapons was understandable. Nazi Underworld: Nazi Gold, National Geographic 2013
The old mining tunnels were ideal places to build weapons. ibid.
The world’s first long-range ballistic missile ... More than a thousand V2s were fired at Britain … Killed almost three thousand people. ibid.
The V2 turned out to be extremely unreliable. It was Speer’s greatest flop. As useless as the monumental buildings in Berlin and Nuremberg. Hitler’s Henchmen: Speer the Architect, 1997
I have learned to use the word impossible with the greatest caution. Wernher von Braun
We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming. Wernher von Braun
It will free man from the remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. Wernher von Braun
Intelligence reports suggested that Wernher von Braun had moved his V2 rocket factory into the centre of Germany. The trail was leading to the small town of Nordhausen. On the morning of 11th April 1945 an American team arrived at these hills where they made a breathtaking discovery. Hidden underground was Von Braun’s secret factory where thousands of V2 rockets were being built. The scale was immense ... It was the world’s largest underground factory. The Hunt for Hitler’s Scientists, 2005
Their number one target – Wernher von Braun – had disappeared with over a hundred members of his rocket team ... Several hundred miles away agents chasing the German atomic bomb project continued their hunt for Werner Heisenberg. ibid.
It will be possible in a few more years to build radio controlled rockets which can be steered into such orbits beyond the limits of the atmosphere and left to broadcast scientific information back to the Earth. A little later, manned rockets will be able to make similar flights with sufficient excess power to break the orbit and return to Earth. Arthur C Clarke 1945
Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a space station in ... orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. Arthur C Clarke 1945
‘Once the rockets are up
Who cares where they come down;
That’s not my department,’
Says Wernher von Braun. Tom Lehrer
Indeed the early history of rocket design could be read as the simple desire to get the rocket to function long enough to give an opportunity to discover where the failure occurred. Most early debacles were so benighted that rocket engineers could have been forgiven for daubing the blood of a virgin goat on the orifice of the firing chamber. Norman Mailer, Of a Fire on the Moon, 1971
Corporations and education and advertisers … Pizza Hut sponsored the [Russia/European space launch] rocket … Mark Thomas Comedy Product s5e4, Channel 4 2001
In 1944 the Nazis unveiled a deadly new weapon – a supersonic rocket capable of massive destruction – the V2 ballistic missile. But it hid a dark secret. Thousands of slave labourers were worked to death in the hellish conditions to make Hitler’s ultimate vengeance weapon … Behind the V2 was one man – Wernher von Braun, gifted figurehead of the Nazi rocket programme … The Americans, the Russians and even the British would hunt Wernher von Braun. Nazi Hunters s1e1: Hunting the Nazi Rocket Scientists, 2010
It set a template for many modern rockets. ibid.
The Earth is in danger. Future cosmic events will blast, burn or rip it apart. One day life on Earth will become impossible. To save the human race other places will have to be found to be home. We’ll need lifeboats and new homes out amongst the stars. How the Universe Works s3e8: Our Voyage to the Stars, Science 2014
We have to build a massive spacecraft. ibid.
A rocket powered by antimatter could reach a speed that’s 15% of the speed of light. ibid.
‘The picture of a shuttle coming apart will live with me for ever.’ Days that Shaped America: Challenger Disaster, History 2018
‘A hyper media event because of the schoolteacher.’ ibid.
‘It’s very loud. The ground begins to shake.’ ibid.
‘The loss of seven astronauts and a national tragedy.’ ibid.
In 1985, Concord, MH high school teacher Christa McAuliffe is chosen to be American’s first private citizen to fly into space. In the months leading up to the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the mother of two rehearses lesson plans that will be broadcast live from the spacecraft. She is 37 years old. Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes, captions, National Geographic 2018
‘Space flight today really seems safe.’ ibid. McAuliffe television interview
Between January 22 and January 27 1986 the launch is delayed due to mechanical problems, weather, and delays from another shuttle mission. ibid. caption
‘The temperature here at the Kennedy Space Centre dropped down into the twenties.’ ibid. news commentary
Cape Canaveral in Florida: this is Kennedy Space Centre where fifty years ago Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off aboard Apollo 11. And on July 20th 1969 Neil and Buzz became the first humans to walk on the moon. Brian Cox & Dara O’Briain, Stargazing: Moon Landing Special, BBC 2019
Cape Canaveral space port in eastern Florida: it’s spread across over 200 square miles. In the centre are the rocket factories and science labs. While the launch pads are scattered along the coastline about four miles to the east. From here over 400 people have blasted into space. ibid.
‘At lift-off it was real shaky … real big vibration …’ ibid. Charles Duke
Aerospace company Boeing is building the Starliner Spacecraft right here on site. It will fly on top of an Atlas 5 rocket. ibid.
It’s a spirit which has carried us off the planet to new frontiers which one day may make us a multi-planetary species … To create a machine with the power to break free from Earth’s gravity and hurl us towards other worlds. Jim Al-Khalili, Revolutions III: Rocket, BBC 2019
A rocket revolution is upon us with more companies building and launching their own rockets that at any other time in human history. ibid.
This is the story of humanity’s greatest adventure. And our grandest dreams. And who knows what effect this will have on society. ibid.
If the gunpowder is confined into a tiny place, the gas that’s released provides thrust that pushes the bamboo shoots in this case in the opposite direction. And this is the principle of the rocket: a force in one direction producing a force in the other direction. ibid.
His name Jules Verne, and his stories [are] the grandest adventures imaginable. ibid.
A way to turn fiction into fact, and his name was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky … A young man with the time and the ability to carefully work through the possibility of space flight using first principles and the laws of physics. ibid.
That speed turns out to be very large indeed: 7.8 kilometres per second, or 17,210 miles per hour. ibid.
His passion for building rockets was ignited: he would become America’s greatest rocket pioneer and his name was Robert Goddard. ibid.
March 16 1926: Humanity’s [Goddard’s] first liquid-fuelled rocket makes it from the Earth into the sky. ibid.
In 1930 a young engineer joins a Berlin science club – the Society for Space Travel – His name is Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun. ibid.
1944: A pump that can make the magic twenty-five tons of thrust possible for the rocket now called the V2. ibid.
Each superpower soon realised the potential for rockets to deliver their new weapons of mass destruction. ibid.
Sergei Korolev got a remarkable promotion: from political prisoner to Colonel in the Red Army. The reason is simple: Korolev is a brilliant rocket scientist. ibid.
Korolev drew up plans for a massive new rocket known as the R7. It will be the world’s first multi-stage design. ibid.