How War Took Humans to the Moon

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Before rockets carried humans to the moon, they were designed [music] to rain destruction across cities during World War II. And when the war ended, America and the Soviet Union launched a secret race for the scientists [music] who could change the future forever.

[00:00:19]Near the end of World War II, >> [music] >> Germany created the terrifying V2 rocket. It became the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile.

[00:00:30]Unlike airplanes, the V2 traveled faster than sound.

[00:00:35]There was no warning.

[00:00:39]No defense system could stop it.

[00:00:44]The rocket could climb over 80 km high, briefly touching the edge of space before crashing into cities at supersonic speed. Its engine produced nearly 25 tons of thrust using liquid [music] oxygen and alcohol fuel. At the time, this technology seemed almost impossible.

[00:01:04]>> [music] >> But behind the engineering achievement was horror.

[00:01:09]Many V2 rockets were built using forced labor inside underground [music] factories like Mittelwerk.

[00:01:16]Thousands of prisoners died [music] from starvation, abuse, and brutal working conditions.

[00:01:22]More [music] people died building the rockets than from the rockets themselves.

[00:01:29]When the war collapsed in 1945, both the United States and Soviet Union rushed to seize German rocket technology.

[00:01:38]America launched [music] Operation Paperclip, secretly bringing German engineers to the United States.

[00:01:45]The Soviets captured factories, blueprints, and scientists of their own.

[00:01:52]One of the most important scientists [music] was Wernher von Braun.

[00:01:56]He helped design the V2 for Nazi Germany, but later became one of America's top rocket [music] engineers.

[00:02:03]Years later, his team developed the massive Saturn V rocket. [music] The same technology lineage that once carried warheads would eventually [music] carry humans to the moon.

[00:02:20]The Soviet Union used captured German [music] research to accelerate its own missile and space programs.

[00:02:26]Soon the Cold War became a battle [music] beyond Earth itself.

[00:02:31]Satellites, intercontinental missiles, moon missions, space stations, all [music] powered by rocket technology born from wartime destruction.

[00:02:41]The space age didn't begin in peace. It began in the ruins of World War II >> [music] >> and the same science built for war eventually carried humanity into space.

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