WERNHER VON BRAUN - AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT SIGNED - HFSID 350447
Price: $7,000.00
WERNHER von BRAUN
The man who pioneered the concept of the space shuttle writes about space travel.
Autograph Manuscript signed: "By Dr. Wernher von Braun" in title, 1p, 8¼ x 10½ ruled sheet.
Manuscript page, which is written in pencil, is part of a longer manuscript("1" written by von
Braun at upper margin). Headed: "Space Travel/by Dr. Wernher von Braun/Chief, Guided
Missile Development Division//Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala." In full: "There are few
dreams of the future which have woven so fascinating a web around human fantasy as
flight through space. Since the first, epoch-making experiments of the great American
pioneer of rocketry, Robert H. Goddard; since the days when Hermann Oberth, the
German, and the Russian Constantin E. Ziolkovsky published their startling writings on
rocket propulsion, a veritable spate of literature has overwhelmed the public. This has
covered the entire field ranging from serious, scientific dissertations to comic strips.
Thus, the intelligent layman outsider who is at tempting to sift the actual promises of
space flight from idle conjecture frequently finds himself more confused than before he
began to [word crossed out] study space flight literature. [word crossed out] More often as
not He gets the impression that arguments about the". Lightly creased with folds, not at
signature. Some lines written over pencil erasures (all writing legible). Light paper clip rust stain
at upper left margin. Overall, fine condition. Framed to an overall size of 37¾ x 22. Small
indentations at lower left corner of the frame. Surfaces scratches at the middle of the frame on
the left.
German-born space pioneer Dr. Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) became Technical
Director of the U.S. ballistic weapon program at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville,
Alabama in 1950. In the late 1950s, he was leading the U.S. into its most courageous
stage of space exploration. His rocket development team successfully put into orbit the first
U.S. satellite, Explorer I (January 1958), and they put Redstone Rockets into defense
service by U.S. Army units in Germany in June of that year. They also developed the
Jupiter-C, Juno and Pershing rockets and the Saturn 1, 1B and V rockets, which launched
the Apollo flights. Apollo II was launched on its journey on a Saturn V as part of the program
that peaked with the Moon landing on July 20, 1969.
Dr. von Braun lobbied tirelessly to promote his dream of travel into space in both oral
and written discourse. He shared his knowledge through speaking engagements, press
conferences and publications. Space Frontier (1967, revised 1971) is among the books he
authored and, along with F. Ordway, he wrote The History of Rocketry and Space Travel
(1966, revised 1969). Von Braun also contributed articles to scientific and technical journals.
Von Braun, who served as Chief of the Guided Missile Development Division before the
establishment of NASA, was named Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville in 1960. Ten years later, he transferred to NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
While a teenager, von Braun had worked with Hermann Oberth, who produced the theory
of the rocket motor. Following his graduation from the University of Berlin (1934), von Braun
worked with the team of scientists that developed the V-2 rocket. He had followed the
writings of Konstantin Eduardovitch Tsiolkovskylong (Constantin Siolkovsky) of
Russia and Robert H. Goddard, the American pioneer of rocket research. Von Braun admired
Goddard for the experiments he was doing, and following WWII, von Braun and his German
rocket development team surrendered to U.S. troops (1945) and made America their home.
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