He would have been a hundred years old today. Also, it’s the 29th anniversary of the announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative. “Wouldn’t it be better to save lives than to avenge them?”
[Update a couple minutes later]
Related to last item: Japan prepares missile defense in anticipation of North Korean launch.
[Update a few minutes later]
Back to von Braun: a blog post from Roger Launius.
Oops! You misspelled Wernher.
Please delete this comment.
*runs and hides*
Here’s an interview with his daughter Margrit on his 100th birthday.
I think I’ve seen her on Facebook before. Speaking of that, one of the unfair results of the Apollo program is that the astronauts who went to the moon have Facebook profile photos that ordinary humans can’t possibly match. After you visit Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, or some other Apollo astronauts’ page, you look at your own photo and think “What’s the freakin’ point? My photo is soooo lame. I have to get to the moon so I can update my profile.” That essential unfairness is the legacy of Apollo. I blame the Germans.
Don’t worry, the upcoming weaponized necrotizing fasciitis will affect us all equally. Except that Charlie Duke’s family photo will still be on the lunar surface.
Once the rockets go up,
Who cares where they come down
That’s not my department,
Says Wernher von Braun
(with apologies to Tom Lehrer)
“We shoot for the stars. Sometimes we hit London.”
Germans and Jews: every powerful country wanted their scientists.