KONRAD DANNENBERG: AN AMBASSADOR FOR SPACE

摘要

Space exploration has been a fantasy of mankind since we first turned our heads to the night sky. Konrad Dannenberg spent most of his life making that fantasy a reality. Born in the town of Weissenfels, Germany, as a young man he quickly realized his fascination with space; and later earned a degree in mechanical engineering at Hanover University. In 1939 he was called into military service for Germany as World War Ⅱ broke out. In mid- 1945, Dannenberg and other German engineers surrendered to the US Army and eventually aided the US in rocket design as a part of Operation Paperclip. While working for the US Army he helped to develop systems such as the Jupiter and the Redstone rockets. He also helped in the development of NASA's Saturn Ⅴ liquid-fuel expendable rocket engines. This achievement allowed man to walk on the moon in 1969, as well as the first US orbiting space laboratory, Skylab, in 1973. Though his work greatly helped man succeed in our quest for space exploration, he also had another major contribution to the space community. In retirement Dannenberg became a respected educator at NASA's US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where he inspired the next generation of astronauts and engineers, making him truly an ambassador for space.