The Last Empty Sky

The development of the rocket: 1920 to 1957

Robert Goddard’s under-funded, largely ignored 1920s development of liquid-fueled rockets paralleled Werner Von Braun’s civilian rocket club, which ultimately created Hitler’s V2 rockets. At war’s end, Von Braun and fellow captured scientists are invited to continue their experiments at America’s White Sands Missile Range - using their own left-over V2s. Von Braun and his engineers chafe under Eisenhower’s orders to avoid launching towards space even as Russia’s Chief Designer, Sergei Korolev, secretly prepares to launch Sputnik into orbit.

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