Hermann Oberth

Hermann Julius Oberth (1894 to 1989) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and rocket pioneer who was an influential theorist of modern astronautics. He developed mathematical and technical concepts for liquid-fueled and multistage rockets and examined their use for crewed spaceflight, space stations and interplanetary travel, and he designed and experimentally tested a liquid-fueled rocket engine. He studied and worked in Germany and Romania, teaching physics and mathematics, and in the late 1920s worked in Berlin on experimental rockets as part of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt, which included many later German rocketry pioneers such as Wernher von Braun. During World War II he worked at Peenemünde on the A4 rocket program, and after the war he worked in Switzerland, for the Italian Navy and from 1955 in the United States, mainly with von Braun's team at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, before retiring in Germany.