US:A once top-secret manuscript by Wernher von Braun, the Nazi physicist turned leading figure in US space exploration, which is widely recognised as a milestone in the development of modern rockets is to go under the hammer in New York today.
The 166-page document, which von Braun created for his PhD dissertation in April 1934, contains the scientist's hand-written annotations as well as his charts and graphs. Von Braun was awarded a doctorate in physics on the basis of the dissertation but its contents were considered so pivotal to the future of rocket development that it was seized by the German military and remained classified until 1960.
Von Braun developed Nazi Germany's V2 combat rocket which was known as the Vergeltungswaffen 2 or Vengeance Weapon 2 and was launched on London on September 7th, 1944.
He and his fellow scientists surrendered to US troops at the end of the war and were integrated into the US's scientific community. Von Braun went on to become the director of Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Centre and the main architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle for Apollo 8, which enabled the US to put a man on the moon.
But Von Braun remains controversial to this day, as does the decision to recruit a former top Nazi scientist. Although von Braun always contested the charge that he was a willing card-carrying member of the National Socialist party, there is evidence to suggest he might have joined it voluntarily as early as 1932. He later became an officer in the Waffen-SS.
While initially viewed sceptically by many Americans, von Braun, who died in 1977, soon endeared himself to them with his plans to conquer space, even collaborating with Walt Disney to make educational films.
Until now the manuscript which is being auctioned at Bonhams in Manhattan had been in the possession of a fellow scientist who worked with von Braun on the V2 rocket project in Peenemunde on Germany's Baltic coast.