ABQjournal: Rocket Taught U.S. a Lot

Sounds like a good reason for a trip down south.

Saturday, May 8, 2004

Rocket Taught U.S. a Lot

The Associated Press WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE? A museum on White Sands Missile Range will be the new home of a refurbished V-2 rocket that was displayed for about 50 years in a park across from range headquarters. "It's exciting and emotional for me," said Terrie Cornell, director of the White Sands Missile Range Museum. "It's emotional because this is what embodies White Sands Missile Range; it's why we were started and why we're still here." The rocket will go on display in about six weeks, providing glimpses both of an early rocket and the first days of America's own missile program. V-2 rockets were developed by the Germans during World War II. Railroad freight cars of captured V-2 components arrived at White Sands in August

1945, helping America begin its own rocket development program. Famed German scientist Wernher von Braun and other scientists who had surrendered to the Americans wound up in nearby Fort Bliss, Texas, where they worked on the fledgling program. "Without this we would have never gone to the moon. A lot of America doesn't really know what we owe von Braun for developing the V-2," said Fred Walters, a Cloudcroft resident who worked at White Sands for 33 years. "It's sad what the V-2 was used for, because I really do believe that space is where von Braun really wanted to go." More than 60 V-2 rockets were tested at White Sands between 1946 and 1952, giving the nation valuable experience in assembling, preflight testing, handling, fueling, launching and tracking. Scientific experiments conducted aboard the V-2 also provided information about the upper atmosphere. The 46-foot-long V-2 being displayed has been repainted to look like the first two test-flown at White Sands, Cornell said. "The first launch was a complete dud," Cornell said. "But Col. (Harold R.) Turner, who was White Sands' first commander, invited the press and other dignitaries out to White Sands to watch the second flight. Considering the first failure, that took courage." This particular rocket never flew, said range spokesman Jim Eckles. When the original rocket park was relocated near the museum, the V-2 was sent to Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson for refurbishing at a cost of $153,000. "All of that concrete had to be chiseled out it," Walters said.
Reply to
Mark Hamilton
Loading thread data ...

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.