Wernher von Braun in Soviet hands

nova2010

Banned
If in 1945 Stalin had issue an order to NKVD 'Bring Wernher von Braun to Moscow alive i will not tolerate any failure" and NKVD send a special team to carry the order and succesed. Now in the hands of the Russians would von Braun will be collaborated and revealed all the secrets of Nazi rocket technology and if yes what the impact for cold war and Soviet space programe
 
Although Von Braun get's overestimated, the Soviets still gain an excellent scientist whilst the US lose one. The Soviets win the Space Race ( although personally I think they did anyway).
 

nova2010

Banned
Although Von Braun get's overestimated, the Soviets still gain an excellent scientist whilst the US lose one. The Soviets win the Space Race ( although personally I think they did anyway).

And in that case "IN THE NAME OF USSR, LENIN AND MANKIND WE CLAIM THIS PLANET"

or

"A SMALL STEP FOR US A BIG STEP TOWARDS SOCIALISM"

Soviet.jpg
 
If in 1945 Stalin had issue an order to NKVD 'Bring Wernher von Braun to Moscow alive i will not tolerate any failure" and NKVD send a special team to carry the order and succesed. Now in the hands of the Russians would von Braun will be collaborated and revealed all the secrets of Nazi rocket technology and if yes what the impact for cold war and Soviet space programe

Perhaps Von Braun can solve the Russians engine problems. They were opposed to the development of hydrogen/oxygen engines during the N-1 program, and the addition of said can increase their payload. But in any event Von Braun is not enough. Korolyov and Glushko were also brilliant, but that didn't help them in the face of budget cuts and that damned rivalry between every single bureau. The fact that Glushko also refused to design the heavy engines for the first stage of the N-1 led the rocket to its troubled 30-engine configuration. Maybe Von Braun designs a Soviet equivalent of the F-1 engine, so their rocket actually manages to make orbit.
 
"Один маленький шаг для Социалиста, один гигантский прыжок для Революции!"

- Alexey Leonov, October 24th 1968


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The American Space Program would suffer irreperable damage due to Von Braun being missing (one of its principal supporters). The Soviet Space Program would benefit greatly for obvious reasons. What is unknown to me is if Von Braun would be given his own team to work with (unlikely), be assigned to someone other than Korolyov, or be assigned directly to him. If he can butterfly the Voshkod capsule away for the Zond and Soyuz, and he can successfully influence the development of the N1, then success for the Soviet Program is assured.
 
If in 1945 Stalin had issue an order to NKVD 'Bring Wernher von Braun to Moscow alive i will not tolerate any failure" and NKVD send a special team to carry the order and succesed. Now in the hands of the Russians would von Braun will be collaborated and revealed all the secrets of Nazi rocket technology and if yes what the impact for cold war and Soviet space programe

[In honor of our 2011 Halloween Necromancy]

Any NKVD team that can break through those German lines can probably abscond with only one German.

So, Dr. Von Braun is in Soviet hands. He'd probably have 'creative differences' with the Soviets once they start going their own way in development (with the R-7 by 1954). His OTL aversion to clustering may manifest itself in an opposition to the use of strap-on boosters on the R-7. If he's not careful, he may find himself taking a bullet when he's no longer useful.

What happens in the US without Dr. Von Braun? Redstone will probably still be developed in some form; it was really just a really big V-2 IOTL anyway. Explorer is the logical outcome.

But Von Braun did a lot to convince the US government to go to the Moon as the logical way to one-up the Soviets. He was also a big science popularizer in his day. Without his long, well-illustrated articles on fully reusable space shuttles and rockets to the Moon and Mars, the US rocket program as a whole gets less exposure prior to 1957.

Von Braun was also a big opponent of the proposed break-up of his team before the Army's rocket labs were transferred whole to NASA. Without his big-name opposition, there's a chance that the Germans will be divided between NASA and the Army, and some might stay with the latter branch.

Von Braun's own fate: Assuming he dies at the same date as IOTL due to health reasons, he is largely unknown outside the Soviet engineers themselves. They will remember him as an important contributor to the Soviet military space station programs, as the moon race might be entirely averted ITTL. However, due to the heavily nationalistic and ideological nature of the Soviet information system, he may remain entirely unknown to most Russians, as it would not do for such Revolutionary triumphs of the Motherland to be owed even in part to a German. He might even be barred from leaving the country, or attending international space engineers' conferences.
 
It turns out that the United States is capable of planning and executing a space program with the engineers and scientists that let it do so in OTL, only this time Americans aren't overshadowed by a man who used slave labor to launch vengeance weapons at British civilians.
 
When in 1945? Can't be after April, because by then von Braun and much of his team were already in Mittelwerk, later moving to Oberammergau. In fact I think it would be a very difficult WI to set up given that WvB and his team were dead-set about avoiding it.
 
It turns out that the United States is capable of planning and executing a space program with the engineers and scientists that let it do so in OTL, only this time Americans aren't overshadowed by a man who used slave labor to launch vengeance weapons at British civilians.

Whilst I agree with your views on Von Braun. what Americans would replace him?
 
If in 1945 Stalin had issue an order to NKVD 'Bring Wernher von Braun to Moscow alive i will not tolerate any failure" and NKVD send a special team to carry the order and succesed. Now in the hands of the Russians would von Braun will be collaborated and revealed all the secrets of Nazi rocket technology and if yes what the impact for cold war and Soviet space programe

The Russians would do what they did with the other Nazi scientists. They would interrogate him, extract information and when the Russian scientists found out what he knew they would send him back to Germany.

The Russians had their own rocket scientists who had surpassed the Nazi rocket guys by the early 1950's. I don't think Von Braun would add much to what they had. The Americans would be forced to use their own talent and although it's 'rocket science' I am sure there would be enough Americans to work out how to build a V2 and improve on it.

The British were building rockets too in the 1950's and were hampered by money and resources not by the absence of good enough Nazi scientists.
 
The British were building rockets too in the 1950's and were hampered by money and resources not by the absence of good enough Nazi scientists.

Surely you know that the billions that were poured into NASA all went to Von Braun directly, who build his rockets single handedly using German science?
 
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