The first space shot, Peenemünde, Germany

"We have made our first space shot..."

Said Dr. Walter Dornberger, after giving the order to launch the rocket, which would go down in history as man’s first attempt to explore space.
This historic event took place on the 3rd. October 1942 at 15.40 from the northern point of the Isle of Usedom in east Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The rocket, launched from "Prüfstand VII" of the military test area in Peenemünde, travelled at 1340 m./sec. to a height of 85 kilometres and came down some 190,5 km. from the Pomeranian coast.

Twelve years of intensive development work had gone into this moment. Work on the trial base had begun in 1936 in Peenemünde on the Isle of Usedom with the buildings, including the launching pad, to make the largest research site in the world.
The aim of the development was for military use and the technicians and scientists had to dedicate their knowledge and skills to the war effort.
The rocket type "Fieseler 103" (the so called reprisal weapon V1) and "Aggregat 4" (the V2) entered the war with dire consequences for the civilian population.

In 1945 the American and Russians snapped up the technicians, scientists, technical documentation and the base and so began the rocket projects in the USA, the former USSR and other countries.

Wernher von Braun, the former technical head at Peenemünde, was heavily involved with other scientists in the USA with the development of the Saturn rocket, which was to carry the Apollo module, with Neil A. Armstrong on board, to the moon on the 21st. of July 1969. Man’s first step on the moon was the realisation of a long cherished dream for the scientists.
After this triumph Wernher von Braun became director of the US Space Agency, NASA.
The Peenemünde Information Centre now occupies the former bunkers of the power station and original pieces of the A-4 and Fi-103 rockets are exhibited there. A model of the "Prüfstandes VII" shows visitors a detailed layout of the test area and launch pad of the A-4.

There are also documents reminding of the people who were forced to work in Peenemünde such as aliens and concentration camp inmates who perished during the development, building and deployment of this weapons system.