"V-2" redirects here. For other uses, see V2.The V-2 (German:Vergeltungswaffe 2, "Retribution Weapon 2"), technical nameAggregat-4 (A4), was the world's first long-range ballistic missile. The liquid-propellant rocket was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon", designed to attack Allied cities as a form of retaliation for the ever-increasingAllied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket was also the first man-made object to enter the fringes of space.
Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets during the war, mostly London and later Antwerpand Liège. According to a BBC documentary in 2011, the attacks resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, while 12,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners were killed producing the weapons.
The V-2's greatest impact may have been after the war; as Germany collapsed, teams from all of the Allied forces raced to collect rockets, designs and the German engineers and scientists involved in the V-2 effort. In the immediate post-war era, these teams were combined with local groups to re-engineer and update the V-2 design. The knowledge gained from these efforts led to rapid progress, especially in theUnited States and the Soviet Union, and by the mid-1950s, nuclear-armed descendants of V-2 missiles were common battlefield weapons. By the end of the decade these had reached intercontinental range and became a primary strategic weapon.
Through a lengthy sequence of events, a significant portion of the original V-2 team ended up working for the US Army at theRedstone Arsenal. This team, led by Wernher von Braun, would be turned over to NASA on its formation. For NASA they helped design a series of booster rocketsin the Saturn family, which successfully landed a man on the Moon
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