A memoir: From peenemünde to USA: A classic case of technology transfer

Abstract

This paper traces the development of rocket technology in Germany from the 1930s and 1940s that led to the massive, and historically unprecedented, transfer of rocket, missile, launch-vehicle and related technologies to the post-World-War-II United States. This achievement was made possible by an initial group of 118 German rocket specialists to which others were gradually added. The contributions to rocketry, upper atmosphere and space research, and eventually manned space travel provided by Germany's Wernher von Braun and his team of engineers, scientists, technicians and support personnel is, in particular, described, and the ongoing influence of the innovations they introduced is considered. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.