1943: Werner von Braun killed in allied airstrike

[Euroman26]

what if Braun and team had been killed in an allied airstrike in late 1943. What effekt would this have had on the future?

[Derek Jackson]

Does this prevent the V2 from happening. If so what happens to the resources the Nazis wasted on this nasty but militarily irrelevant weapon?

Does it prevent or at least delay space rockets and balistic missiles?

[Markus]

Originally Posted by Euroman26

what if Braun and team had been killed in an allied airstrike in late 1943. What effekt would this have had on the future?

None. Rocket development was not a one man show. Neither during, nor after the war.

[tchizek]

Originally Posted by Markus

None. Rocket development was not a one man show. Neither during, nor after the war.

I don't know about "none" von Braun was quite a bit of the driving force at very least it probably slows down rocket development in Germany...during WWII.

Also it depends on who else was with von Braun when he is killed - WWII air strikes were not precision instruments by any means. Was he with other rocket scientists? Designers? Techs? Who else is killed?

If the allies happened to catch the whole design team on their way to a meeting and trash the whole caravan then it does have a major impact on the German rocket program.

[zoomar]

Originally Posted by Markus

None. Rocket development was not a one man show. Neither during, nor after the war.

No, but he was a particularly charming advocate for the post war US space program, and he was very much involved in the design concepts of all US army and NASA launch vehicles up to and incuding the Saturn V. I tend to think that the greatest impact might come after WW2, with a slightly retarded US space program, and perhaps no moon landings until the 1970's.

The Apollo program itself would still exist in one for or another, since this was as much a political initiative as anything else.

[Mark E.]

Since the Russians managed to take enough German rocket scientists to get a jump on the US in the fifties, one man might not have changed the playing field very much. But there is the point of how many others might have been killed with Von Braun, as named above.