The father of the American space program died JUNE 16, 1977.

He developed the V-2 rocket for Germany during World War II before emigrating to the US, where in 1958, he launched America's first satellite.

He worked on the U.S. guided missile program as was director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

The chief architect of the Saturn V booster rocket, he is considered "without doubt, the greatest rocket scientist in history," and received the National Medal of Science in 1975.



His name was Wernher von Braun.

Founder of the National Space Institute, Wernher von Braun stated:

"In this age of space flight, when we use the modern tools of science to advance into new regions of human activity, the Bible-this grandiose, stirring history of the gradual revelation and unfolding of the moral law-remains in every way an up-to-date book.

Our knowledge and use of the laws of nature that enable us to fly to the Moon also enable us to destroy our home planet with the atom bomb. Science itself does not address the question whether we should use the power at our disposal for good or for evil.

The guidelines of what we ought to do are furnished in the moral law of God."



Wernher von Braun continued:

"It is no longer enough that we pray that God may be with us on our side. We must learn to pray that we may be on God's side."

To the California State Board of Education, September 14, 1972, Wernher von Braun wrote:

"One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all....

The better we understand the intricacies of the universe and all it harbors, the more reason we have found to marvel at the inherent design upon which it is based....

To be forced to believe only one conclusion-that everything in the universe happened by chance-would violate the very objectivity of science itself...."



Wernher von Braun continued:

"What random process could produce the brains of a man or the system of the human eye?...

They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?...

They say they cannot visualize a Designer. Well, can a physicist visualize an electron?...

What strange rationale makes some physicists accept the inconceivable electron as real while refusing to accept the reality of a Designer on the ground that they cannot conceive Him?...

It is in scientific honesty that I endorse the presentation of alternative theories for the origin of the universe, life and man in the science classroom.

It would be an error to overlook the possibility that the universe was planned rather than happening by chance."



In American Weekly, February 10, 1963, (Foreword to his Anthology on the Creation and Design exhibited in Nature), Wernher von Braun wrote:

"It is difficult for me to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe...

Viewing the awesome reaches of space...should only confirm our belief in the certainty of its Creator."