The Life & Games of Wernher von Braun

Tumultuous times do not only change history-at-large, but also the lives of individuals. A person might have to move to another country and start anew. It’s hard to continue a successful career after such a sharp break in life. It’s particularly hard if the first part of your career was based on the exploitation of slave labor in the service of a totalitarian dictatorship that warred against your prospective new employer. And yet, a German rocket engineer did just that – he developed rockets for the Nazis, transitioned, and then held a crucial position in US rocket development and the space flight program that put the first man on the moon. “How did he do it?”, you wonder? – Gather ’round while I tell you of Wernher von Braun.

Sputnik and the Beginning of the Space Race

On October 5, 1957, the very first human-made satellite was launched into space. The USSR’s Sputnik 1 orbited the earth. While its signal was nothing more than a simple, regular beep, it echoed like thunder. How did this happen? What were the wider ramifications of this technological breakthrough? And if you feel the itch to conquer space yourself, which board games can you turn to?