The Race to Space

          Today my family and I watched a movie called Race to Space. Here are a few Questions and assignments for the movie.

Question 1) Write at least 3 paragraphs about Wernher Von Braun.

Answer:

       Wernher Von Braun was born March 23, 1912. Braun was a German aerospace engineer, but later became an American aerospace engineer. In Wernher's twenties and thirties, he worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. While he was working in Germany, he helped develop the V-2 rocket at Peenemunde during WWII. Following the war, he was secretly moved to the United States, along with 1,600 other German Scientists and engineers, as part of Operation Paperclip.

        In 1945 Von Braun signed a one year deal with the US to be flown out to America. He became technical director of the U.S. army Ordnance Guided Missile Project in Alabama in 1952. Later on he and his team successfully launch the first American artificial earth satellite, named Explorer I on January 31st 1958. While leading the Army's Redstone Arsenal team, Wernher was responsible for the first stage Redstone Juno-I rocket that launched the Explorer I. Also during this time, he became a legal U.S. citizen.

In 1972, he became the vice president at the Aerospace Company Fairchild Industries Inc. Von Braun got married to Maria Luise Von Quistorp in 1947. They also had 2 girls and 1 boy. Von Braun later die on June 16 1977. To this day, Wernher Von Braun is still recognized as one of the most important human figures for space.

Question 2) Write at least 2-3 paragraphs about Ham the Chimp.

Answer:

      Ham, also known as Ham the Astrochimp, was born in 1957 in the French Cameroons, there he was later captured by animal trappers and was sent to a rare bird farm in Miami, Florida. 2 years later, the United States Air Force purchased Ham and he was brought to Holloman Air Force Base in 1959.

     While Ham was at the Air Force Base he was trained, along with another 40 monkeys, to fly to space. Luckily, Ham beat out all of his opponents and was able to fly to space. In a lot of ways, Ham had a huge impact on the space community. Later on in his life, Ham moved to a zoo in Washington D.C., where he would live the rest of his life. 

Question 3) what are 3 things about the space race that you found interesting and why?

Answer:

 I found it interesting that Russia and America thought that it was so important to get to space first. I do see why though, it was defined by who had the best tech, science, and economic system.

Another one is how much money they spent doing this whole thing. They spent around 25 million dollars. That's about 100 million dollars in today's money!

Lastly, is that this whole thing has a conspiracy theory which is that the moon landing was a hoax. Though both sides are very convincing, I am going to say that the moon landing was real.