The Will to Do It

His first rocket--pressurized with a bicycle pump and launched from a local dump--failed to fly. Some of his later models flew only too well, taking off from sites in Germany and occupied Holland to impact on London with horrifying effect. But if Wernher von Braun, who died of cancer last week at 65, is remembered by future generations, it will probably be for his postwar achievements. As one of the most valuable war trophies carried home by the U.S., he headed the team that developed the Jupiter C rocket that put the U.S. into the space race by launching the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958. His team pioneered the development of the Redstone, which carried America's first astronaut aloft in 1961. Most important, he designed and developed the huge Saturn 5 rocket, which opened a new era of space exploration in 1969 when it carried the Apollo 11 astronauts to the surface of the moon. "Wernher von Braun's name was inextricably linked to our exploration of space," said President Carter. "Not just the people of our nation, but all the people of the world have profited from his work."

Born in Germany, where his father was a baron, Von Braun showed a precocious interest in rocketry; at the age of twelve he managed to construct a rocket-powered wagon, and by the time he was 21 he had outlined the design for a moon rocket. His genius led the German army to employ him in 1932 to develop liquid-fueled rockets; by 1937 it had moved him to the Baltic Sea port of Peenemuende, where began the work that led to Hitler's dreaded V-2 rocket. As the war drew to a close, Von Braun was considering a missile that could reach New York City.

In early 1945, as Russian armies approached Peenemuende, Von Braun and many of his staff fled to Bavaria and surrendered to U.S. troops. The Americans recognized the value of their prisoner. Within a few months, he was working under contract to the U.S. Army at the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico. By 1950, he was placed in charge of guided missile development at the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Ala. In 1960, Von Braun, who had since become an American citizen, was named director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville and charged with building the rockets that would eventually carry U.S. astronauts to the moon.

Von Braun's readiness to work for a new master and single-minded dedication to rocketry won him some critics. Satirist Tom Lehrer skewered Von Braun in a mocking song (Sample verse: "Once the rockets are up/ Who cares where they come down/ That's not my department/ Says Wernher von Braun"). Even some Von Braun admirers admitted that their hero was not always easy to like.

But most of those who worked with Von Braun felt that he was a genius. Alan Lovelace, acting director of NASA, described the handsome German as "a 20th century Columbus who pushed back the new frontiers of outer space with efforts that enabled his adopted country to achieve pre-eminence in space exploration." Colleague Ernst Stuhlinger considered him an excellent engineer with an almost uncanny ability to visualize both a problem and its solutions, and a brilliant leader who could transmit his enthusiasm to others. Stuhlinger's admiration is understandable. When someone asked Von Braun what it would take to build a rocket to reach the moon, Von Braun replied simply: "The will to do it."

Von Braun ignored both the criticism and the praise, concentrating on his goal of turning the space race into a vehicle for international cooperation. He once said: "I look forward to the day when mankind will join hands to apply the combined technological ingenuity of all nations to the exploration and utilization of outer space for peaceful uses." That day has not yet arrived, but Von Braun's work has certainly helped to bring it closer.

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