HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — The U.S. Space and Rocket Center has announced that Maria von Braun, the wife of Dr. Wernher von Braun, has passed away at 96.

Born Maria von Quistorp in Berlin in 1928, she married Wernher von Braun in 1947 in Landshut, Germany, under U.S. military guard amid concerns about Soviet efforts to recruit German rocket engineers.

In 1945, sensing defeat in World War II, von Braun and his team surrendered to the Allied forces and arrived in the U.S.

Dr. Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration in the twentieth century. As a youth he became enamored with the ...

Nazi rocket scientists, including Wernher von Braun, surrendered to this Sheboygan man in May 1945 Wernher von Braun eventually became part of NASA, where he became the chief architect of the ...

Wernher von Braun led NASA'S development of the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the Moon. His Nazi record was not widely known until after his death. By Michael J. Neufeld Several months ...

In November 1937, Wernher von Braun officially joined the Nazi Party. Not joining “would have meant that I would have had to abandon the work of my life,” von Braun later insisted. In 1940 ...

Of course, the moon landings did take place not long after von Braun visited Muncie. In December 1968, Apollo 8 became the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon. Eight months later, Apollo 11 ...

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center announced the passing of Maria von Braun, Wernher von Braun’s widow on Friday. The center said she died Jan. 20 at her home in Alexandria, Va. She was 96. “Maria ...

Wernher von Braun led NASA'S development of the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the Moon. His Nazi record was not widely known until after his death. By Michael J. Neufeld Several months ...