Last Known Member of German Rocket Scientist Team that Launched the U.S. Space Program has Died

Accepted but never fully acknowledged is the fact some 1,500 German scientists and engineers built the United States' space program that today leads the world in the science of spaceflight.

The last of these Germans whose work on Nazi Germany's V-2 ballistic missile led to the building of the massive Saturn V rocket that allowed 12 Americans to land on the Moon died May 5.

Oscar Carl Holderer was the last known survivor of a top German engineering team brought to the U.S. in 1945 to jump start American's fledgling rocket program that was still a decade behind that of Nazi Germany at the time the Germans surrendered in May 1945.

Holderer, 95, died in Alabama. He helped design the Saturn V rocket that took 21 astronauts to the Moon, 12 of whom set foot on the Moon.

Holderer came to the United States after the end of World War II as one of some 1,500 German rocket scientists and engineers under "Operation Paperclip" that brought advanced German rocket technology to America.

Holderer designed the tri-sonic wind tunnel used by NASA to test the Saturn V rocket that took the crew of Apollo 11 to the Moon on July 20, 1969. On July 21, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the Moon.

NASA historian Ed Buckbee said Holderer brought NASA's first rocket wind tunnel to the U.S. from Germany and personally put it together.

Buckbee said some of the 120 members of Operation Paperclip eventually returned to Germany. The majority remained the U.S. after retirement. He said Holderer was the group's last known survivor, said DW.de.

"He was a very talented man, not only an aeroballistics expert but very accomplished in design and fabrication," said Buckbee.

His obituary said Holderer was "proud" to have become an American citizen in 1955.

Under Operation Paperclip, German rocket scientists, scientists, technicians and engineers from Nazi Germany and other foreign countries were brought to the U.S. for employment after World War II.

One purpose of Operation Paperclip was to prevent German scientific expertise and knowledge from being acquired by the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, and to prevent post-war Germany from redeveloping its military research capabilities.

A team of mostly German rocket scientists led by Wernher von Braun developed the Saturn family of American rocket boosters to launch heavy payloads to Earth orbit and beyond. No Saturn rocket failed catastrophically in flight.