In the early 1920’s and leading up to World War II German technology outpaces the peace time governments and industries of the world in flight research and military capability. Germany had a very intellectual environment with the likes of Einstein and Wilhelm Wundt, who along with Sigmund Freud, established modern psychology. However, with the rapid rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, German society leaned toward the idea of expansionism and genocide with a military rife with scientific development to do that.

On the other side of the world in North America, rocket pioneer, Robert Goddard, labored over the development of the first rockets as he envisioned future space travel. Robert toiled with few funds to promote his work, and little help from the US government or military. Regardless, his work unlocked the first scientific data on rocket propulsion and flight. His efforts produced modern appearing rockets with aerodynamic symmetry that did not impress the American government, but Werner Von Braun, a NAZI rocket researcher found Goddard’s published flight data to be a godsend! With no intention of aiding fascists or their cause, Goddard had unwittingly aided the Nazi regime in developing a deadly war weapon, whose design would be produced again in the 1990’s under Saddam Hussein’s regime as a the “Scud” missile during Operation Desert Storm!

As the US and Germany raced ahead in atomic experiments to see who could develop the first atomic bomb, the Nazis already had the delivery platform, the V-2 rocket which would not have been possible without Robert Goddard’s flight data! Few people realize the crucial time factor that separated German and American efforts at the manufacture of an atomic weapon. Had the German’s delayed the Allies for a few more months, they may have had an atomic warhead sitting atop a V-2 rocket that could have devastated all of Europe and Great Britain, and they wouldn’t have stopped there as plans were made for a long range trans Atlantic bomber on a one way trip to drop an atomic bomb over New York City! Not only that but they also were working on the first space plane nicknamed the “Silver Bird” that would have been capable of a trans-Atlantic flight, dropping bombs over the US, and then gliding in the upper atmosphere to a Japanese base in the Pacific, untouchable by conventional air defenses!

At Peenemunde, the secret base, the Nazi’s perfected the V-2 rocket that some say could have been used for a moon flight!  Luckily, they did not succeed in developing the first atomic bomb as their heavy water experiments had not yielded the needed cooling for a reactor core! Yet, as the Me-262, the first operational fighter jet, and the Komet Rocket plane were unleashed, the overwhelming numbers of Allied bombers and conventional prop-driven fighter aircraft wore down Herman Goering’s Luftwaffe, and there would be a quick foreseeable end to the war! As American and Russian forces closed in on the scientific staff of Peenemunde, willing Germans gladly flocked to the American forces knowing they would be treated more humanely then by the Russians!  

The Nazi scientists would be recruited for America’s space program and missile development, and the early incarnate of NASA would be born. Under Operation Paper Clip, all former Nazi researchers would be given new identities, residence, and employment in Florida! Werner Von Braun would be named as Director of Space Research! There are very interesting speculations about Von Braun. Some say he allowed unofficial terms to slip from his public statements such as the mysterious “They” who had provided the Germans with advanced technology! Von Braun who envisioned orbital space stations, also planned occupation of the moon surface as well, but he was staunchly against weaponizing space!

To think that all of this could not have been originated without the initial flight testing data of Robert Goddard from his workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, innovator ignored by his own government!