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The First Picture Of Earth Taken From Space
And the earliest history of the space program
After World War II, the Allied nations were gifted a large amount of rocket technology. Between German refugees, dozens of recovered V-2 rockets, and the rocketry labs in the German heartland, the Allies had everything they needed to start their own advanced rocket programs.
Despite being under heavy bombardment for years at the end of the war, Germany remained the world leader in rocket technology. Their fearsome V-2 rockets terrorized Western Europe for months before Germany capitulated. The Allies inherited that prowess and immediately began to work on it. It wasn’t long before the United States and the Soviet Union caught up and then surpassed Germany in terms of functional rockets.
In fact, some of the earliest rockets to make it to the edge of space and beyond were simply modified V-2s. This speaks volumes about how advanced German rocketry was. It would take years before the Allies would develop their own homegrown rockets that could surpass the ability of the V-2.
The Early Space Program
The American space program kicked off immediately after the conclusion of World War II. By 1946, multiple groups had been formed with the goal of using rockets to explore space using the…
