Wernher von Braun

Von Braun directed the development of the V-2 ballistic missile for Nazi Germany at Peenemünde, where production drew on forced labour from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. He surrendered to American forces in May 1945 and was brought to the United States with more than a hundred of his colleagues under Operation Paperclip. Working first for the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss and Redstone Arsenal, and from 1960 for the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration, he led the design of the Saturn V launch vehicle that carried Apollo 11 to the Moon on 16 July 1969. His American career produced the rocket of the century; his German one cannot be detached from the regime that built it. Both are part of the record.