Happy Birthday Hermann Oberth

[AHHans]

On this day 125 years ago, on the 25 June 1894 Hermann Julius Oberth was born in the Transylvanian town of Hermannstadt (today Sibiu in Romania). Instead of the traditional occupation as a vampire, he choose a career in rocket science instead. He was (one of?) the first to mathematically prove that multistage rockets can indeed escape the Earth's gravitational field and travel to other planets. In the 1920ies he was a member of the  "Verein für Raumschiffahrt"  in Germany, an amateur rocketry group, where he worked together with a young student named Wernher von Braun. After becoming a naturalized German citizen he worked on the rocket program of pedant Germany in Peenemünde  between 1941 and 1943. After the war Oberth mostly lived near Nürnberg in west Germany. Eventually he came to work for his former student - the von Braun guy - on the US rocket program for some time. He retired in 1962 and died on the 28 December 1989. His legacy is tarnished by being a member of the new funded National Democratic Party (NPD) in west Germany from 1965 to 1967. In 1962 he caused a small scandal when he said:  "I had hoped to find a rocket weapon that could smash the ignominious Treaty of Versailles. Unfortunately I failed."  (translation by me...) at a public speech.

To KSP players he is known for his effect on rocket efficency. Remember: always burn at periapsis! (If possible. Terms and conditions apply.)

 

P.S. All actual facts are shamelessly copied from Wikipedia. So blame them if I got it wrong.