First photo of Earth from space - photographed from a V-2 rocket Oct 24, 1946

January 21, 2022

First photo of Earth from space - photographed from a V-2 rocket Oct 24, 1946

"The V-2 (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, "Retribution Weapon 2"), with the technical name Aggregat 4 (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977) was a German-American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany and a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States. While in his twenties and early thirties, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. He helped design and co-developed the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II.

As described by Ernst Stuhlinger and Frederick I. Ordway III: "Throughout his younger years, von Braun did not show signs of religious devotion, or even an interest in things related to the church or to biblical teachings. In fact, he was known to his friends as a 'merry Heathen' (fröhlicher Heide)."

MW 18014 was a German A-4/V-2 rocket test launch that took place on 20 June 1944, at the Peenemünde Army Research Center in Peenemünde. It was the first man-made object to reach outer space, attaining an apogee of 176 kilometers, which is well above the Kármán line.

This particular altitude was not considered significant at the time; the Peenemünde rocket scientists rather celebrated the V-2 launch in October 1942, first to reach the thermosphere."

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As teenagers in the 1920s, a time when space travel was limited to science fiction novels, Wernher von Braun in Germany and Jack Parsons (one of the pioneers of rockets in the USA and also a Pagan) in Pasadena, CA shared an intercontinental rocket science correspondence. Talking for hours on the phone, they exchanged ideas, tips, and notes from experiments on everything from explosions to home-engineered rocket fuel tests. Into adulthood, they went on separate paths."

-taken from wikipedia, WalterSienna, & hafny

First photo of Earth from space - photographed from a V-2 rocket Oct 24, 1946. The V-2 rocket had reached outer space in 1944, but 1946 was the first date of photography. This makes the Germans the first people to send a man-made object into space. The first photos taken from space were taken on October 24, 1946 on the sub-orbital U.S.-launched V-2 rocket (flight #13) at White Sands Missile Range. Photos were taken every second and a half. The highest altitude (65 miles, 105 km) was 5 times higher than any picture taken before.

Wernher von Braun was known to his friends as a "merry Heathen" with no interest in Christianity or the bible during his days of co-designing the V-2 rocket, though after coming to the United States in Operation Paperclip he would eventually convert to Christianity.