When we talk about @People_Of_Space it's important to realize rocketry hasn't always been voluntary. The German V2 was built using slave labor, so lets talk about it

credit for all subsequent V2 photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/41818881@N06/16169466797/in/photostream/ (thanks @pilliarscreatio
for highlighting this)
Space exploration has always had a strange bedfellow in the military. John Glenn flew in the Mercury Friendship 7, launched on top of an Atlas LV-3B (a variant of the Atlas D an ICBM used for carrying nuclear weapons). A clear civilian program wasn't to arise until the Saturn V
The V2 was the first recognizable rocket (using ethanol & liquid oxygen). It reached 50 miles in altitude. A staggering 3,000 were fired at the Allies, killing at least 9,000 people. Although it wasn't as effective as bombers it effectively terrorized civilians within 125 miles!
More people died building these weapons of terror than under their bombardment, with between 12,000 and 20,000 prisoners perishing in the concentration camp factory
Although the V2 body was made from metal, several parts were made from wood to keep the weight down. For example, the guidance vanes in the exhaust-end would burn up but remained carbon long enough for the rocket to hit its target
After allied aerial attacks on the V2 factories, thousands of prisoners died digging tunnels into the mountains so the Germans could continue building V2s underground
Prisoners would sabotage the V2s, causing a lot of them to fall short before reaching their targets. Over 200 prisoners were identified by the Germans and executed for this!
Toward the end of the war, when explosives were in short supply, the warheads were filled with concrete, making the V2 the first kinetic weapon (still effective at demolishing whatever it hit)
There's no doubt of Wernher von Braun's complicity in the Vergeltungswaffe-Zwei, Vengeance Weapon 2 or V-2 even though he went on to be the architect of the US Saturn V rocket that took Neil & Buzz to the Moon (V in this case being the roman numeral five)
von Braun was a member of the Nazi party & the SS. He was arrest shortly before the end of the war when after a few to many drinks he said he thought Germany would lose the war. Although he was at arm's length from the V2 build, he knew what was happening & never expressed regret
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