Wernher Von Braun's Accomplishments

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Wernher Von Braun “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” These were Neil Armstrong's words as he took his first step on the moon. While his achievements will be passed down through history, what we forget to give credit to is the person that allowed them to get there in the first place. A genius. He was a brilliant mind that developed technology that had only been dreamed of before. An Inspiration. To many people such as Homer Hickam in his memoir October Sky, he served as a north star, shining bright to light the way through the darkness. A thinker. He never backed down from a challenge and took the term impossible as a suggestion rather than a fact. He was all these things, yet still we forget him. Without Wernher Von Braun, the U.S. would have lost the space race. While Wernher Von Braun is most known for his contributions to the space race, his origins in rocketry can be traced all the way back to his childhood. Braun was born on March 23, 1912 in Germany, two years before WW1. His father, Magnus Von Braun, was a wealthy landowner and the secretary of agriculture under the Weimar Republic. His high social status and wealth gave Braun many opportunities, yet he squandered them and received horrible grades in school. He was terrible at calculus, trigonometry, and physics and had no motivation to …show more content…

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