PBarnrob - I think it was a 130 German scientists and technicians - led by Werner VonBraum - that defected to the United States in the closing days of WWII. We also got the remains of, I think, 60+ V2 rockets, materials and supplies. It was the JPL built WAC rocket mounted upon a V2 that became the “Bumper WAC” that lofted Explorer I into space, returned the first actual space science and put the United States into the space race. See http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/missiondetails.cfm?mission=Explorer and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=655
PBarnrob - I think it was a 130 German scientists and technicians - led by Werner VonBraum - that defected to the United States in the closing days of WWII. We also got the remains of, I think, 60+ V2 rockets, materials and supplies. It was the JPL built WAC rocket mounted upon a V2 that became the “Bumper WAC” that lofted Explorer I into space, returned the first actual space science and put the United States into the space race. See http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/missiondetails.cfm?mission=Explorer and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=655