DR. SPACE THE LIFE OF WERNHER VON BRAUN

Dr. Space provides a rare, balanced study of the complex, still-controversial father of modern rocketry. Written by veteran space-program journalist Bob Ward, who covered Wernher von Braun and his team at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, this compelling work rejects both the highly idealized and the bitterly harsh versions of von Braun's life found in previous books. Instead, Ward draws on seven years of archival research and more than one hundred interviews to offer new facts about the onetime Nazi Party member turned American hero. As he examines the young German aristocrat's leadership role in creating the world's first ballistic missile-the infamous V- 2 rocket used by Hitler against the Allies-Ward probes von Braun's long association with the Third Reich, uncovering evidence of how the apolitical rocket pioneer accepted party membership and an SS officer's commission only under heavy pressure and how his connections to the notorious V-2 slave labor factory were largely peripheral.

The book also sheds light on von Braun's unique postwar contributions in the United States, including his team's launching of the first U.S. satellites, hurling the first American astronauts into space, and building the Saturn V super-rocket that powered Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, and their successors to the lunar surface during the tense Cold War race to the Moon. Nor does Ward gloss over the space leader's humiliating final years with NASA in the nation's capital and his long battle with cancer.

But this biography is also filled with humor as it explores the human side of this driven, charismatic visionary. Readers will come to know a gregarious man who often enjoyed late nights drinking whiskey and telling jokes with friends, who could just as readily mesmerize large audiences. Von Braun played the piano and cello, spoke several languages fluently, could pilot an array of aircraft, loved scuba diving, and was a brilliant conversationalist, as much at ease discussing Nietzsche as nuclear fission. This look at the total man is certain to narrow the divide between von Braun's admirers and his detractors.

SYNOPSIS from amazon.com

Wernher von Braun, the father of modern rocketry, is a hero to some and villain to others, and the many books written about him are either bitterly critical or adoring. This biography is neither. After seven years of investigation, veteran aerospace journalist Bob Ward has rejected the extremes and presents a revealing, even-handed portrait of the onetime Nazi Party member who brought the United States into the Space Age. As it chronicles von Braun’s life, the book explodes many myths and misconceptions about this controversial genius. From the young German aristocrat’s leadership role in the development of the world’s first ballistic missile―the infamous V-2 rocket―to his successes in the United States after the war, a picture of von Braun emerges as a brilliant scientist with limitless curiosity and a drive to achieve his goals at almost any price. Yet the author’s lengthy research reveals that the apolitical von Braun accepted nominal Party membership and an essentially honorary SS commission only under heavy pressure, and that his connections to the notorious V-2 slave labor factory were largely peripheral. Ward sheds new light on von Braun’s extraordinary contributions to launching the first U.S. satellite, hurling the first American astronauts into space, and winning the`Moon race’ with the Saturn V super-booster that powered Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, and their successors to the lunar surface. 

But the author does not shy away from revealing facts about the space leader’s humiliating final years with NASA in the nation’s capital and his long battle with cancer. Along the way, readers are introduced to the human side of this charismatic visionary who mesmerized audiences across the country. The author devoted more than ten years of research and conducted more than a hundred interviews with von Braun’s colleagues to complete this behind-the-scenes biography that looks into the stories, heroics, and contradictions of an enigmatic man. Former editor of The Huntsville (Alabama) Times, BOB WARD has written extensively about space since 1957. He covered the von Braun rocket team for years as a reporter and as a correspondent to technical and trade periodicals in New York.