Cradle of Spaceflight

Last Monday, when we were in Peenemunde, after touring the town we visited the 'cradle of spaceflight.' At this location a rocket was launched which made mankind's first breach into space and gave birth to modern rocketry. It is because of the work done here that we have a space program, that we made it to the moon, that we have GPS and weather satellites and so many other space based technologies. Obviously, this location is important to us :)

[I enjoyed the large pictures, so I am going to stick with that for now] We had a kilometer or so walk through the woods to get to the P7 launch site. This is all restricted area, so we had to 'sneak' in. It was no big deal, but the wooded area around the site is extremely dangerous. There are old bunkers and holes which are covered by brush which you could easily fall into. Also, there are unexploded bombs from WW2 air raids. The photo above is of an old cold war building. Not much is left from WW2.

After an hour or so we made it to the site. This is us rocket scientists in front of what is left of the v2 assembly building.

We walked around the corner and found ourselves at the launch site. They would move the rockets on large sleds from the assembly building to the launch position. The railway was still intact. The pool above is the cooling water for the launches. The launches took place just to the right of this photo.

At the launch position there is a monument. It was a bit controversial for this to be placed here, but all it says is that this is where the A4 rocket was launched, which is simply a fact.

This is the fire hydrant which you can clearly see in the old videos of the rocket launches. It kind of looked goofy too.

This is one of those good holes to fall into. It was getting dark so we went back. It might seem like we didn't see much, Maik even warned us before going that it was going to be a long walk and there wouldn't be much to see, but we insisted. We needed to see the site, to stand there and take it in. Our profession started here, now it is our job to continue the journey into space. -Eric