Keith’s note: As best I can collate the facts, on 18 March 1945, 79 years ago today, a V-2 missile was launched from Statenkwartier in The Hague in occupied Netherlands at 9:25 am by Germany’s Battery 485. My father was almost killed when it struck London a few minutes later. My 50 year career was enabled by that V-2. A direct descendant, a Saturn V, designed by the same V-2 team, placed Americans on the Moon. The other day, yet another direct descendant, the SpaceX Starship, leapt above the sky. I originally wrote this story in 2019 as the Apollo 11 anniversary approached. Humanity now lives in space permanently. Our spacecraft have left the solar system. Our space telescopes look back to the beginning of time. We are spacefarers. Space technology has its roots in weapons of war. America’s early accomplishments in space were achieved with direct use of Nazi technology and personnel. Russia followed a similar path. Today North Korea, Iran, Russia and other nations use rocket designs with a clear lineage originating with Hitler’s V-2. All technology is iterative. Smart technology persists and finds peaceful uses despite its war making origins.

NASA Successfully Launches Five Rockets from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia “NASA successfully launched five suborbital sounding rockets this morning from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as part of a study of the upper level jet stream. Each of the rockets released a chemical tracer that created milky, white clouds at the edge of space. The launches and clouds were reported to be seen from as far south […]

High Altitude Rocket On-board Video: Qu8k – BALLS 20 – Carmack Prize Attempt, NASAHackSpace “On September 30, 2011 at 11:08am, Derek Deville’s Qu8k (pronounced “Quake”) launched from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to an altitude of 121,000′ before returning safely to earth. Above 99% of the atmosphere the sky turns black in the middle of the day and the curvature of the earth is clearly visible.” Team America Rocketry […]

Rocket Launch Completed From NASA Wallops “The launch of a NASA Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital rocket was successfully conducted at 7:16 a.m. EDT today from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The launch was to test several new rocket and spacecraft technologies.” Keith’s 9 Jun note: NASA Wallops is trying to launch a Terrier-improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket from NASA’s Launch Range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia today. At […]