The Nazis Accidentally Reached Space First in 1944

It is a little-known fact that the first man-made object to reach space was a Nazi weapon.

The Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Vengeance Weapon 2, was the brainchild of German-born engineer Wernher von Braun, who later became instrumental in the U.S. space program during the Cold War.

Prisoners of war were forced to build the V-2 missiles under precarious conditions, and more people lost their lives during the manufacturing process than with the actual firing of the rocket towards the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium.

However, in June of 1944, a V-2 missile launched from what was then Germany’s Baltic Coast reached a suborbital altitude of 108.5 miles.

What constitutes international airspace boundaries is still debated to this day, but there is no question that many Nazi inventions had a significant influence in the Space Race and even in modern outer space technology...

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[jonslg]

108.5 miles is high enough to be considered "outer space" by any definition

[robertwilson]

I first met Dr. Von Braun as a cub scout in Huntsville Alabama. Shook his hand and received an award for our pack. Years later as an airline passenger service agent in Huntsville, I encountered him during his trips to Washington and other places as head of NASA HUNTSVILLE in1969 and 1970. After speaking with him and explaining my German heritage, he would check-in with me only. He introduced me to his family. His team members also checked -in with me only... I found him to be a decent person and wonderful personality. I miss him to this day and count myself lucky to have had a small relationship with him despite the negative propaganda put forth by his war years detractors. So, there...truth is good. He took mankind to the moon and stars, not bad, aye?

[StuHolmes]

The V2 is also the granddaddy of all past and present SCUD missiles around the world. the general architecture and layout is pretty much unchanged, except for some improvements to the modularity of parts for ease of manufacture. Scott Manley did a great video on this very topic.

[Aengus]

It wasn't the Saturn 5 that put the 1st US astronaut in space. Alan Shepard flew a Redstone on a suborbital hop in 61.
Saturn 5 first flew in November 9th 1967 unmanned.

[TexasEngineer]

I have been trained in the Pershing 1A guidance and control and a part of that training was on the V2. The Pershing is a son of the Restone. What is interesting about the V2 is that the transistor had not been invented. The control of the jet and wind vanes requires an amplifier and they were a combination of vacuume tubes and magamps (mangnetic amplifier). You can imagine the problem of launching glass vacuume tubes into space. With the Pershing, the intigrated circuit was not in commercial use. It is my belief that IC were what was contained in the Pershing’s command modules, small solid black cubes with multiple pins.

[Alan-in-Bama]

As someone that was born in 1970 - Alabama, I can tell you that even as a child in the mid to late 70's, I remember Werner Von Braun still had a major positive impact and great reputation throughout North & Central Alabama. He was just as influential as Paul "Bear" Bryant to kids at the time.

Von Braun was much more than a genius rocket scientist...he contributed a lot of his personal time and effort to improve all aspects of the community in Huntsville, AL....visiting schools and speaking events to encourage school kids to study and pursue S.T.E.M. careers.
He helped to improve the quality of schools and many charities for the people of what was a small but fast-growing city in the early 60's.

For the people that consistently try to condemn Werner Von Braun and his legacy.... Realize this,
Von Braun was obsessed with rocketry and going to space...during his teens and early 20's.
Well BEFORE the NAZI's were in power or even existed !



As far as the slave labor used in the underground factories of Germany...Von Braun was Chief engineer/scientist in designing the V-2 rockets. Period.
* He did not run the assembly factories or control who or how the labor force was used.
* He could have spoke out against the use of slave labor or even tried to free some people himself... in which he most definitely would've Failed or been caught. Not helping anyone, but also putting his own life and his family's lives in severe Danger (Death) from the SS !

[ivorypoacherplays]

Hell yeah keep them coming, please make more playlists, I love listening to these while I work

[jameshughes]

We're still living in the age of the V2 - that's a wild thought.

[davidbreazeale]

I would love to learn more about the history of the Hubble Telescope, the design, construction, the mistakes and the correction of those mistakes, and also about what is going to replace it

[AJ_JonesXAD]

Factual error, It was the Mercury program using the Redstone (sub-orbital) rocket that put the first American in space. The Atlas was used for orbital flights. Gemini program came next and flew on a Titan II, then Apollo with the Saturn V.

[oldgysgt]

To say vonBraun was "forced" by the German army to develop military rockets is not exactly true. The fact is vonBraun was a Untersturmführer, (Lieutenant), in the SS. His past was covered up to allow him to be brought to the US to help develop military rockets for the US Army.

[liamthespaceman]

Actually, a few days before, on the 13th of June, 1944, the V2 named ´´V-89´´ became the first rocket to reach suborbital space. Launching from Peenemünde on the 13th of June, 1944, it strayed of course and landed in Bäckebo, Kalmar County, Sweden. It has been calculated to reach a height of 120 kilometers, well surpasing the Karman Line.

[joeschmalhofer]

Saturn 5 didn't put the 1st American into Space, that was the Redstone.

[negi]

At that time the space line was 50 miles which was first breached by germany in 1942. If you are going to deny them that accomplishment, you have to also take the astronaut wings from the X15 pilots who exceeded 50 mi. but not 60.

[mah]

Not a Saturn V, but a Redstone took the first Mercury astronauts into space, followed by the Atlas. But otherwise, an informative video. BTW, funny to see the image of John Glenn when you mentioned primates in space... yes, true, but probably not what you meant🙂

[stephanebeauregard]

Comment @2:25: AFAIK, the V2 did not have ¨rudders¨ but rather thrust-vectoring paddles in the rocket motor exhaust stream.

[markus]

„We are still living in the age of the V2“
🤔
It is the prettiest rocket in the whole video. I wonder what it would achieved if not used for useless war.

[mdarongke]

The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet
"Wernher von Braun"

[jakethomson]

Alan Shepard was the first American in space. He was launched on May 5th, 1961 aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket, not a Saturn V. HTH.

[Inkling]

After the war the U.S. shipped trainloads of V2s to White Sands, NM and used them for testing. You might do an entire show on that.