As part of a summary of his work on rockets during World War II, Wernher von Braun speculated on future uses of rocket power. These included an observatory in space, the construction of space stations in earth orbit, a space mirror, and interplanetary travel, beginning with trips to the moon.

A total of 107 V-2 launches were made from Heidekraut. At the end of December Dornberger made his last visit to Heidekraut. By then the Russian Army was approaching, and the test launch area had to be moved south of Wolgast, with the impact area being in the Tucheler Heide. But in fact the test battery never shot again. It was moved to the forest near Wolgast in mid February, then again to Rethen an der Weser, with an impact area off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein.

Jan. 01, (17.17 hours) - Battery 444 or Batt. 485, the Hague or Wassenaar, Ockenburgh, rocket fired, several meters above the launch table the rocket turned 160 degrees. Blasting low over two cemeteries it came down in the houses in the Indigostraat, at the corner of Kamperfoeliestraat, at a distance of 3600 meters from the launch site. 38 people lost their lives. The doctors and nurses, who were very quick to the crash, were not allowed to enter the area until after the Germans had collected the remains of the rocket.

First 'Kitz' launch - listed under Heidekraut launches, but actually made from Karlshagen or railhead area of Peenemuende. Planned range 320 km. Launched into sea; accuracy 1.6 km to the right of the planned trajectory. Circular error 58.0 km from aim point.

Speer puts Dornberger in charge of an office within the Munitions Ministry to oversee further development of the A4 and other rockets, drawing on staff from Peenemuende. Everyone knew the war would be over in a few months -- nothing could be accomplished. Kammler still made sure that Dornberger was only responsible for technical aspects. All further developments of the A4 had been on hold for years, and any further work was now impossible. Only simple things could be worked on, such as converting 6 cm smoke rockets to use as an air-to-air weapon. In the short turnaround typical of the times, the team drove to Kummersdorf and built a 21-cm diameter pipe that could fire a barrage of four smoke rockets. Two days later, it was reported back that the device was used successfully in combat, and it was put into production. It was first used against allied bombers over Schweinfurt in January 1945.

The first successful launch, this reached 80 km altitude and 1200 m/s. It then flew stably in supersonic flight using its 13.5 sq. m. wing. The automatic guidance system was designed to keep the missile on course in both supersonic and subsonic flight regimes. However the wing broke off shortly after the beginning of the glide. This concluded work on the A4b/A9; the increasingly chaotic situation in Germany prevented further flight tests.

The group's first priority was to evalute the prospects for rapid development of an effective surface-to-air missile to combat the incessant Allied bombing raids. It had to be beam-riding instead of optically guided, in order to be effective at night and in bad weather. The group found there was no single 'wonder weapon' that would end the war in a few months. But Kammler still believed the Reich still could hold out for six months, enough time to develop and deploy a new weapon. Dornberger's team disagreed, but they had to try nevertheless. Therefore the Schmetterling, Wasserfall, and X4 missiles went into simultaneous final development and production. But realistically none of them could be mature enough to be sent to the front until early 1946. If the Reich could hold out that long, then it was possible it could slowly win back territory.

During January, the fifth month of the V-2 combat campaign, there were from 574 to 620 combat launches on the Western Front. The final 19 training launches from made from Heidekraut before it was abandoned in the face of Russian advances on the Eastern Front. 700 missiles were manufactured at Mittelwerk. See V-2 launches for a list of known combat launches.

In addition to responsibility for the V-weapons, Kammler was tasked with producing jet engines for manned aircraft in the northern section of the Mittelwerk. He was successful in keeping production going, but in the end, with the cities of Germany in ruins, its air bases were full of new jet fighters, but there was no fuel to operate them. There was no longer fuel for trucks, and horses had to be used for transport. There was an even bigger backlog of aircraft and missile hardware in the tunnels of Mittelwerk, but they remained there due to lack of transport. As a weapon for the jet fighters, the 5 cm R4M powder rocket was used. Each fighter had 48 of these rockets, each of which weighed 7 kg and could propel 500 g of explosive at 400 m/s to a range of 1200 to 1500 m.

During February, the sixth month of the V-2 combat campaign, there were from 528 to 644 combat launches on the Western Front. 617 missiles were manufactured at Mittelwerk. This was the peak month of the campaign and the first month that launches exceeded production. See V-2 launches for a list of known combat launches.

the Hague, Wassenaar, rocket fired, impacted on the boundary of Finsbury borough and City of London borough. Direct hit on block of Smithfield Market, corner of Charterhouse Street and Farringdon Road. One block totally destroyed, others severely damaged. Gas main and water main fractured, underground railway damaged. 110 Dead, 123 seriously injured.

Batt. SS Abt. 500, Hellendoorn, Eelerberg, rocket fired, Target Remagen. Disintegrated in the air near Kasbach. Part of the rocket penetrated the roof of a house; other parts fell on a farm 800m from the Ludendorff Rail Bridge injuring 18 farm animals. Warhead impacted 300m from the bridge, shaking it very strongly. Three American soldiers killed.

Batt. SS Abt. 500, Hellendoorn, Eelerburg, rocket fired. Having been dormant since March 20, this battery resumed operations for this one final launch. Impacted west of the Scheldt on Visserstraat, Burcht. One house demolished, seven others badly damaged. One person injured.

Battery SS 500 departs Hellendoorn piecemeal before the Allied advance and disintegrates. Some units were equipped with 15 cm Nebelwerfer rockets and ordered to participate in the defence of Berlin. But the war was over before they could reach their destination.

During March, the seventh and final month of the V-2 combat campaign, there were from 617 to 775 combat launches on the Western Front. 362 missiles were manufactured at Mittelwerk. The collapse of the German rail network under allied bombing led to disruptions of supplies of component parts to Mittelwerk, of missiles from Mittelwerk to the Front, and production and distribution of rocket propellants and motor vehicle fuel needed by the launch units. By the end of the month Allied advances on the Western Front had forced all of the V-2 firing batteries to abandon their positions. See V-2 launches for a list of known combat launches.

The V-weapon launch corps remained in service until the end of March. Then Kammler went to the Harz Mountains, to command a planned final effort to use the weapons to prevent a link-up of the American and Soviet forces - a plan that came to nothing. In all, 9,300 V-1's had been fired at Great Britain in its seven months of service, of which 6,000 reached the coast. 4,300 V-2's had been launched in combat, 1,500 at London, and 2,100 at Antwerp. 20% of these used the radio guidance system. The V-1's range had been extended in test models to 370 km, although only a few of these modifications had reached the front. On the other hand, the range of the V-2 had been extended to 350 km, and this was the version provided to the front-line troops in the last months. But at the end of March 1945 the Germans evacuated the V-weapon firing areas in Holland.

After being forced to retreat from its operational area in late March 1945, Battery 836 was to have moved first to a location 16 km west of Osnabruck for firing operations, but the situation on the ground prevented this. They then moved to Celle (about 30 km north of Hanover). From there the remaining rockets were to be fired against Russian forces at Kostrzyn, 100 km northeast of Berlin. The unit could not set up in time to accomplish this before Kammler ordered the rocket units to be dissolved and convert to infantry. On April 8 the battery destroyed its rockets and launching equipment and ceased to exist. In all, 1593 V-2's had been fired against Antwerp, 1225 against London, and 461 against other cities and targets, by one accounting. A total of 3000 to 3280 missiles had been fired in combat launches, and another 440 to 1000 in test and training launches. A total of 6,100 missiles had been manufactured, at least 1,800 of which were early production versions that were either scrapped or cannibalised for later production.

Little is found. Western intelligence is convinced that the Soviets conduct missile tests from Peenemuende in the late 1940's (the Scandinavian 'ghost rockets'). But Russian historical sources available after the downfall of the Soviet Union do not support this belief.

First launching of a two-stage rocket-propelled research model, the Tiamat missile, which employed six rockets as boosters, had automatic stabilization, its maneuvers were programed, and its testing was the first research program of the NACA's Wallops Island Station.

Goddard's rocket team ends its work at the Naval Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis, Maryland. During the previous three years the team had developed a variable-thrust rocket motors. This required hundreds of proving-stand tests, but eventually producing a successful motor, later used on the Bell X-2 rocket plane.

Launched from Toulon, France. The pad was damaged, requiring substantial repairs. The source of the rocket's problem is finally found to be burn-through and loss of a portion of the inner wall of the combustion chamber, which blocked the nozzle exit. Ironically the last EA-1941 is ground run for full duration in the summer of 1946 without incident. However plans to develop it further as a sounding rocket are abandoned.

Father of American spaceflight; launched first liquid-fuel rocket, 1926. By 1936, he had solved all of the fundamental problems of guided liquid propellant rockets and was testing essentially modern vehicles. But he was reclusive, took patents but did not share lessons learned with others. Aerojet and von Braun did not benefit from his experience.

Secretary of War Patterson approved plan to bring top German scientists to United States to aid military research and development. Small group of German rocket specialists brought to United States under Project Paperclip to work on missile development at Fort Bliss and White Sands Proving Ground.

Third and final launch in Project Backfire, with allied observors. Glushko, Sokolov, Pobedonostsev; Korolev and Gaidukov kept outside fence; Von Karman, Merrill, Seifert, Pickering from US. The launch was successful and the missile reached an altitude of 90 km.

Request For Proposals were issued to 17 contractors by the US Army Air Force for studies of a 10-year R&D program of four missile types. The missiles were to be air-, rail-, road-, or ship- transportable, and fit in three range categories: 280 to 800 km; 800 to 2400 km; and 2400 to 8000 km. Minimum speed was 970 kph, requiring turbojet, ramjet, or rocket propulsion.