Konrad Dannenberg, Top Rocket Scientist, 96, NY Times
DGH
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/us/23dannenberg.html?ref=obituaries
Konrad Dannenberg, 96, Top Rocket Scientist, Dies
By JEREMY PEARCE [New York Times]
Konrad Dannenberg, a rocket propulsion expert and one of the last of a 1940s
German military-scientific team that switched allegiances at the end of
World War II and helped American space and missile programs in the cold war,
died on February 16, 2009, in Huntsville, Alabama. He was 96 and lived in
Madison, Alabama.
Konrad Dannenberg in 2007 with an Apollo program moon lander, which he had
helped design, at the Marshall Space Center in Alabama. Mr. Dannenberg's
expertise was in rocket propulsion.
Mr. Dannenberg's death was confirmed by a spokesman for the Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, run by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
From 1960 to 1973, Mr. Dannenberg helped design propulsion systems for
liquid-fueled Saturn rockets at Marshall to carry ever larger payloads into
space. In 1969, a Saturn V rocket propelled astronauts of the Apollo 11
mission to make the first manned landing on the Moon.
The Saturn's successes had their roots in German military research and
Wernher von Braun's development of the V-2 rocket, an early ballistic
missile used by the Nazis as a weapon of terror. In 1944 and 1945, more than
3,000 of the rockets were launched at targets in Britain and on the European
mainland, and they killed 2,700 civilians around London, England alone. The
V-2 carried a 1,000-pound payload of high explosives into the stratosphere,
to rain down in a descent that was difficult to pinpoint and impossible to
defend against.
Mr. Dannenberg, who trained as a mechanical engineer, had been released from
the German army in 1940 to assist in the V-2's design and refinement at
Peenemünde, a testing site along the Baltic coast. There he worked on the
rocket's engine efficiency and later on drawings to speed production.
At the end of the war in 1945, Mr. Dannenberg and more than 100 fellow
scientists were taken to Fort Bliss, Tex., for debriefing and a review of
their work. The German team, still led by Dr. von Braun, became an early and
influential chorus supporting American efforts to put a satellite into
orbit, and ultimately to pursue manned space exploration.
In 1950, Mr. Dannenberg accompanied members of the team to Alabama, where
they refined the V-2's design into a more robust medium-range ballistic
missile at Redstone Arsenal. Versions of the missile were fitted with
nuclear warheads and were also used in the launching of communications
satellites and in other scientific research.
In 1958, a Redstone missile was used in the launching of Explorer 1, the
first successful American satellite. Mr. Dannenberg helped oversee
production of the missile's engines. Before moving to Marshall in 1960, he
worked on a longer-range version of the Redstone called the Jupiter.
In the decades that followed, questions about the wartime origins of these
spectacular advances resurfaced. In 1992, the German aerospace industry
announced plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the V-2 and provoked an
outrage. Critics in Britain and Germany cited the victims' memories and
pointed out that 10,000 to 20,000 Russian, Polish and Jewish slave laborers
had died in digging underground rocket factories. It was also revealed that
Dr. von Braun had held an officer's commission in the SS.
For his part, Mr. Dannenberg, who was not a member of the Nazi party, said
that the Peenemünde team had not been involved in the factory brutality,
that the rocket science was pure, and that the German "army was the only
rich uncle with enough money to pay for the things we wanted to do."
In 1985, Mr. Dannenberg and 22 German scientists petitioned President Ronald
Reagan to reinstate the citizenship of Arthur Rudolph, a colleague from the
Peenemünde facility who later worked for NASA and was accused by the Justice
Department of being responsible for inhumane living conditions at wartime
V-2 factories. Mr. Dannenberg said the SS had been to blame for the
conditions.
Konrad Dannenberg was born in Weissenfels, Germany. He earned a master's
degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Hanover.
Mr. Dannenberg is survived by his wife, Jackie; a son and two grandchildren.
Mr. Dannenberg continued to raise his voice for research well into his 90s.
He lectured at a summer camp held at Marshall for budding engineers and
astronauts, and he was often interviewed about rocketry and his experiences
in the infancy of aerospace exploration.
In 2007, he suggested that efforts by private industry to establish tourism
in space might embarrass nations and help push their budgets and borders a
bit further.
He also said he sensed a weakening American commitment to space exploration.
"I think it's a foolish thing," Mr. Dannenberg said.
"As von Braun said, 'If you do it when you need it, it's too late. You
missed the boat.'"
danny burstein
In other words, with thanks to the late and great Patrick McGoohan:
Our German Scientists
outlived
Their German Scientists.
(Anyone know if he was the last one? It's looking
pretty likely).
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Steve Miller - A Famous Rock Star!
danny burstein <dan...@panix.com> wrote:
> [ snip]
>
> Our German Scientists
> outlived
> Their German Scientists.
>
>(Anyone know if he was the last one? It's looking
>pretty likely).
>
No, there are about a half-dozen of these guys left. They seem a
long-lived crew despite boasting of carousing with the ethanol
they needed to fuel their rockets.
Contra NYTimes report, Dannenberg was a member of the Nazi party
from 1932 - he joined before Hitler came to power.
>
>--
>_____________________________________________________
>Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
> dan...@panix.com
>[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
--
Steve Miller
Serial obituarist
danny burstein
[ snip ]
>Contra NYTimes report, Dannenberg was a member of the Nazi party
>from 1932 - he joined before Hitler came to power.
"An obituary on Feb. 23 about Konrad Dannenberg, who had
been one of the last survivingGerman rocket scientists
to switch allegiances and help American space and missile
programs in the cold war, misstated his relationship with
the Nazi Party.
"He was in fact a member of the party. He joined in 1932,
before Hitler came to power, a fact that he revealed to
American immigration authorities."
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/pageoneplus/corrections.html
(url will change)