Book

The beginnings of NASA, the U.S. space program, are inexorably tied to the grim origin of the V-2 rocket. At the end of the second World War, the space race began between the U.S. and Russia to retrieve the V-2 rockets and engineers from Germany and begin establishing their own rocket and space programs. By March 1946 the first captured V-2 was “static fired” at White Sands, New Mexico and in April 1946 the first one was launched. On May 11, 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed legislation establishing “The Joint Long Range Proving Ground at Cape Canaveral.