[Firestarter]

NASA movies - Oberth, Von Braun, Frau im mond

It looks like just about all of the major science fiction movies on space travel have been made with NASA personnel...
I had already found that the first administrator of NASA, T. Keith Glennan, had been a big Hollywood manager before he became involved in staging the “hydrogen bombs” and space travel hoaxes and that German Nazi Wernher von Braun worked with Glennan and Walt Disney.


Hermann Oberth was born on June 25, 1894 in Transylvania (then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire now part of Romania). He was born to German speaking parents and became a German.
At an early age, Oberth became a huge fan of spaceflight science fiction by authors like Jules Verne. Just like Wernher von Braun and Robert Goddard.

Oberth learned of the 1919 book by Robert Goddard "A Method Of Reaching Extreme Altitudes". In 1922, Oberth wrote to Goddard and suggested an international project to develop liquid-fuelled rockets.
In 1923, Oberth published his book "Die Rakete Zu Den Planetenraumen" (The Rocket Into Planetary Space).
In 1927, Oberth joined the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) to become its president. Members of the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt included: Willy Ley, Johannes Winkler, Max Valier, Rudolf Nebel, Kurt Hainisch, Walter Hohmannn, Eugene Sanger , Klaus Riedel, Rolf Engel, and the young Wernher von Braun.

In 1928, Oberth became technical advisor to director Fritz Lang, who was filming the movie "Frau Im Mond" (Woman in the moon). On the set Oberth was helped by Ley, Valier, Nebel, Riedel and the young and eager science fiction fan Wernher von Braun.

Oberth (with the help of Von Braun) constructed and tested a small rocket engine on 23 July 1930. See members of the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt with the rocket in Berlin, 1930. From left to right: Rudolf Nebel, Franz Ritter, unknown, Kurt Heinisch, unknown, Hermann Oberth, unknown, Klaus Riedel, Wernher von Braun, unknown.


Oberth worked at Peenemunde from 1941 to 1943.
After World War II, Oberth came to the US to continue to work on science fiction with Wernher von Braun at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency: http://waterocket.explorer.free.fr/herman_oberth.htm
(archived here: http://archive.is/NBvs)


Even at a young age, Wernher Von Braun was a huge fan of science fiction books about space travel, including the fictional stories of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells (the inventor of “The first men in the moon” and “atomic bombs”). He even wrote his own science fiction including “Lunetta” that was published in a German magazine, about a rocket flight to a space station.
Von Braun also wrote a letter to arguably the greatest liar of the 20th century, Albert Einstein (1879–1955), with rocketry-related questions. Von Braun proudly showed Einstein’s reply to his parents, his professors and fellow students.

In 1947, the 34-year-old Von Braun married his 18-year-old maternal first cousin, Maria Luise von Quistorp (born in 1928). Von Braun had been “wooing” the underage Maria for years.
In 1955, Maria and Wernher von Braun renounced their German citizenship to become US citizens: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061...30.0000162

See the following video where Wernher Von Braun presents a pure science fiction story of going to the moon (look at the pictures!).
He tells about a refuelling operation in low earth orbit, and an atomic reactor.
This goofball was made a physics professor by Hitler for his coloured movie presentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GXFPXala6k


So Oberth and the young Von Braun were already involved in special effects for the movies long before they came to the US to work their “magic”...
See Hermann Oberth in the forefront with Wernher von Braun seated right behind him at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Huntsville, Alabama in 1956. Also pictured Ernst Stuhlinger (seated on the left); H.N. Toftoy, Commanding Officer and responsible for "Project Paperclip" (in uniform); and Robert Lusser (standing on the right).


Fritz Lang is best known for his futuristic masterpiece Metropolis (1926) that nearly bankrupted Germany’s state-financed studio, Ufa.
Lang worked closely with Germany’s leading rocketry science fiction expert, Hermann Oberth, and they visually replicated the rocket described in Oberth’s book, "Die Rakete Zu Den Planetenraumen".
Forty years later the Apollo 11 moon landing closely followed Lang’s and Oberth’s “film script”.

The film featured a multiple-stage booster system to attain escape velocity; a fin stabilisation design for the rocket’s base; before the launch, a media frenzy descends upon the area; and a count down to zero for launch.
The movie shows a crew floating in zero gravity in the space ship.
After the rocket lands on the moon, the crew encounters lower gravity.

As part of the film’s publicity, Oberth and Wernher von Braun tried to launch an actual rocket for the film’s premiere. This stunt failed.
Oberth also advised for the American movie of the moon landing “Destination Moon” (1950)”: http://sensesofcinema.com/2004/cteq/woman_in_the_moon/
(archived here: http://archive.is/xL56h)


Here’s the Lunar landing segment from the movie “Destination Moon” (1950)”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8qqX1d7iDo


I was shocked to find out how “advanced” the special effects were in Lang’s science fiction movie, 40 years before the Apollo moon landings were staged. Judge for yourself…

Launch scene Frau im mond
https://youtu.be/I8gu1p939a4

Landing on the moon scene Frau im mond
https://youtu.be/nkiRCNMq_Es