{"id":25278490,"date":"2026-09-28T13:29:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/?p=25278490"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:29:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:29:23","slug":"kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-saturn-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-saturn-1962\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy, von Braun and the Saturn: The Visit Before &ldquo;We Choose to Go to the Moon&rdquo;"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>On the morning of 11 September 1962, the President of the United States stepped off his aircraft at the Redstone Arsenal airfield in Huntsville, Alabama, and shook hands with the man who had built Hitler&rsquo;s V-2. Wernher von Braun, now director of NASA&rsquo;s Marshall Space Flight Center, was about to show John F. Kennedy the rockets that were supposed to take Americans to the Moon.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The next day, in a football stadium in Houston, Kennedy gave the speech that everyone remembers. What he had seen in Huntsville the day before was in it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-left:4px solid #1a1a1a;padding:18px 22px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px\"><li><strong>Date:<\/strong> 11 September 1962, arrival at Redstone Arsenal Airfield around 9:35 a.m.<\/li><li><strong>Host:<\/strong> Wernher von Braun, director of NASA&rsquo;s Marshall Space Flight Center<\/li><li><strong>With Kennedy:<\/strong> Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, NASA Administrator James Webb, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and science adviser Jerome Wiesner<\/li><li><strong>What he saw:<\/strong> A 30-second static firing of the first stage of Saturn I SA-4, and a fully assembled Saturn I<\/li><li><strong>Same tour:<\/strong> Cape Canaveral that afternoon; the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston on 12 September<\/li><li><strong>Next day:<\/strong> The &ldquo;We choose to go to the Moon&rdquo; speech at Rice University, 12 September 1962<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:28px 0\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-1962.jpg\" alt=\"President John F. Kennedy and Wernher von Braun touring a laboratory at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, 11 September 1962\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block\" \/><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:8px\">President John F. Kennedy and Marshall director Wernher von Braun tour a laboratory in Huntsville, Alabama, on 11 September 1962. Photo: NASA\/MSFC (public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Tour With a Purpose<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Sixteen months earlier, in May 1961, Kennedy had told Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon and return him safely before the decade was out. By September 1962 he wanted to see for himself whether the hardware could do it. According to NASA&rsquo;s Marshall archive, the aim of the Huntsville stop was reassurance from von Braun&rsquo;s team that the planned Saturn rocket could deliver on that promise.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Kennedy flew in with a large party, including Vice President Lyndon Johnson, NASA Administrator James Webb, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and his science adviser Jerome Wiesner. Von Braun met them on the airfield, with the presidential Boeing 707 parked behind.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:28px 0\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/kennedy-johnson-von-braun-redstone-airfield-1962.jpg\" alt=\"President Kennedy, Vice President Johnson and Wernher von Braun at Redstone Arsenal Airfield in September 1962\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block\" \/><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:8px\">Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and von Braun at the Redstone Arsenal Airfield, 11 September 1962, with the presidential Boeing 707 behind them. Photo: NASA\/MSFC (public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The Marshall centre Kennedy toured is shown in NASA&rsquo;s own 1960s orientation film, from its laboratories to the test stands where rocket stages were fired in place.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:28px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qPmJR3XSLjY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Feeling the Ground Shake<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>At Marshall the President watched a 30-second static test firing of the first stage of SA-4, the fourth Saturn I, and walked around a fully assembled Saturn I while engineers explained the far larger rocket that would follow: the vehicle that became the Saturn V. The Saturn I&rsquo;s first stage clustered eight H-1 engines. The first one, SA-1, had flown from Cape Canaveral in October 1961, a flawless suborbital test with a dummy upper stage.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"max-width:520px;margin:0 auto 24px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/first-saturn-i-sa-1-launch-1961.jpg\" alt=\"The first Saturn I rocket, SA-1, lifting off from Cape Canaveral in October 1961\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block\" \/><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:8px\">The first Saturn I, SA-1, lifts off from Cape Canaveral on 27 October 1961, eleven months before Kennedy&rsquo;s visit to Huntsville. Photo: NASA (public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The next day at Rice University, Kennedy described the test to the crowd in words that are now part of the most famous space speech ever given.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:22px 26px;margin:30px 0\"><p style=\"font-size:19px;line-height:1.6;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 12px\">&ldquo;We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor.&rdquo;<\/p><p style=\"margin:0;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>President John F. Kennedy<\/strong>, Rice University, Houston, 12 September 1962<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:28px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WZyRbnpGyzQ\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Argument in Front of the Rocket<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The visit is also remembered for a public row. Two months earlier NASA had chosen lunar orbit rendezvous: a separate lander would descend from lunar orbit while the mothership waited above. Wiesner and his advisers had doubts. As von Braun briefed the President on the plan, with reporters close enough to hear, Wiesner interrupted to object. Time magazine reported that he muttered &ldquo;No, that&rsquo;s no good&rdquo;, that von Braun insisted on the plan, and that Kennedy scowled, folded his arms and said nothing before breaking the tension with a joke.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The spat did not change the decision. Lunar orbit rendezvous flew on Apollo 11 seven years later.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Man Leading the Tour<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The photographs of that day show a confident, smiling von Braun beside the President. They do not show where his rocket career began. Von Braun joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the SS in 1940, and he was technical director of the V-2 programme at <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/peenemunde-operation-hydra-raf-raid-v2-rocket-1943\/\">Peenem&uuml;nde<\/a>. From 1943 the V-2 was assembled in the underground Mittelwerk factory near Nordhausen by concentration-camp prisoners from the Mittelbau-Dora camp system. By the estimate of Smithsonian historian Michael Neufeld, at least 10,000 people died producing the weapon, roughly twice as many as it killed on the receiving end in cities such as London and Antwerp, where the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/first-v2-london-launched-wassenaar-netherlands-1944\/\">first V2s fell in September 1944<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #8a1c1c;padding:22px 26px;margin:30px 0\"><p style=\"font-size:19px;line-height:1.6;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 12px\">&ldquo;We simply cannot remember them only as space heroes.&rdquo;<\/p><p style=\"margin:0;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Michael Neufeld<\/strong>, National Air and Space Museum, von Braun&rsquo;s biographer, to the National WWII Museum<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Von Braun surrendered to US forces in May 1945 and was brought to the United States with more than a hundred of his engineers under what became Operation Paperclip. In 1960 his team at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville was transferred to NASA as the core of the new Marshall Space Flight Center, with von Braun as its first director. The full extent of what had happened at Mittelwerk became widely known only in the decades after Apollo.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Fourteen Months Later<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Kennedy saw von Braun again at Cape Canaveral on 16 November 1963, when the Saturn programme was nearing the first launch of a Saturn I carrying a live upper stage. The photograph of Kennedy pointing skyward beside von Braun and NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans, a Saturn model at their side, is one of the best-known images of the space race. Six days later Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:28px 0\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/von-braun-kennedy-seamans-cape-canaveral-november-1963.jpg\" alt=\"Wernher von Braun explains the Saturn launch system to President Kennedy at Cape Canaveral in November 1963\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block\" \/><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:8px\">Von Braun explains the Saturn launch system to Kennedy at Cape Canaveral on 16 November 1963, six days before the President&rsquo;s assassination. NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans stands on the left. Photo: NASA (public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Marshall later fired the far larger Saturn V first stage, the S-IC, on its test stands in Huntsville; NASA&rsquo;s archival film of one of those tests gives an idea of what &ldquo;feeling the ground shake&rdquo; came to mean.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:28px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-rP6k18DVdg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The Saturn I flew ten times between 1961 and 1965 without a failure. Its successor, the Saturn V developed at Marshall, carried Apollo 11 to the Moon in July 1969, meeting the deadline Kennedy had set. As our piece on <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-eagle-has-landed-66-years-from-kitty-hawk-to-the-moon\/\">66 years from Kitty Hawk to the Moon<\/a> sets out, it was one of the fastest leaps in the history of flight.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>When did Kennedy visit Marshall Space Flight Center?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">President John F. Kennedy visited NASA&rsquo;s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on 11 September 1962. He was met by center director Wernher von Braun, watched a static test firing of a Saturn I first stage and toured the center before flying on to Cape Canaveral the same day and Houston the next.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What did Kennedy see at Marshall in 1962?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">At Marshall Space Flight Center on 11 September 1962, Kennedy watched a 30-second static test firing of the first stage of the Saturn I SA-4 and saw a fully assembled Saturn I, with briefings on the much larger rocket that became the Saturn V. He described the test in his Rice University speech the next day.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Was the Saturn I the most powerful rocket in the world in 1962?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Kennedy presented it that way. At Rice University on 12 September 1962 he said the Saturn C-1 booster was many times as powerful as the Atlas that launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. Its first stage clustered eight H-1 engines, and the Saturn I flew ten times between 1961 and 1965 without a failure.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was the argument between Wiesner and von Braun?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">During Kennedy&rsquo;s visit to Marshall on 11 September 1962, the President&rsquo;s science adviser Jerome Wiesner publicly objected as von Braun explained NASA&rsquo;s chosen lunar orbit rendezvous method for Apollo. Time magazine reported that Kennedy scowled and said nothing before ending the exchange with a joke. The method was not changed and was used on Apollo 11.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was Wernher von Braun&rsquo;s Nazi past?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Wernher von Braun joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the SS in 1940 and was technical director of the V-2 rocket programme. From 1943 the V-2 was built at the underground Mittelwerk factory by concentration-camp prisoners; Smithsonian historian Michael Neufeld estimates at least 10,000 died producing it. Von Braun was brought to the United States in 1945 and became the first director of NASA&rsquo;s Marshall Space Flight Center in 1960.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>When did Kennedy last see von Braun?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Kennedy&rsquo;s last recorded meeting with von Braun was at Cape Canaveral on 16 November 1963, when von Braun briefed him on the Saturn launch system alongside NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas six days later.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"When did Kennedy visit Marshall Space Flight Center?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"President John F. Kennedy visited NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on 11 September 1962. He was met by center director Wernher von Braun, watched a static test firing of a Saturn I first stage and toured the center before flying on to Cape Canaveral the same day and Houston the next.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What did Kennedy see at Marshall in 1962?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"At Marshall Space Flight Center on 11 September 1962, Kennedy watched a 30-second static test firing of the first stage of the Saturn I SA-4 and saw a fully assembled Saturn I, with briefings on the much larger rocket that became the Saturn V. He described the test in his Rice University speech the next day.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Was the Saturn I the most powerful rocket in the world in 1962?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Kennedy presented it that way. At Rice University on 12 September 1962 he said the Saturn C-1 booster was many times as powerful as the Atlas that launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. Its first stage clustered eight H-1 engines, and the Saturn I flew ten times between 1961 and 1965 without a failure.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the argument between Wiesner and von Braun?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"During Kennedy\u2019s visit to Marshall on 11 September 1962, the President\u2019s science adviser Jerome Wiesner publicly objected as von Braun explained NASA\u2019s chosen lunar orbit rendezvous method for Apollo. Time magazine reported that Kennedy scowled and said nothing before ending the exchange with a joke. The method was not changed and was used on Apollo 11.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was Wernher von Braun\u2019s Nazi past?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Wernher von Braun joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the SS in 1940 and was technical director of the V-2 rocket programme. From 1943 the V-2 was built at the underground Mittelwerk factory by concentration-camp prisoners; Smithsonian historian Michael Neufeld estimates at least 10,000 died producing it. Von Braun was brought to the United States in 1945 and became the first director of NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in 1960.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"When did Kennedy last see von Braun?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Kennedy\u2019s last recorded meeting with von Braun was at Cape Canaveral on 16 November 1963, when von Braun briefed him on the Saturn launch system alongside NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas six days later.\"}}]}<\/script><p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:28px\">Sources: NASA History Office, &ldquo;60 Years Ago: President Kennedy Reaffirms Moon Landing Goal in Rice University Speech&rdquo;; NASA Marshall Space Flight Center archive (Flickr, 11 September 1962); John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, White House Photographs, 11 September 1962; Rice University, text of the address of 12 September 1962; Time, &ldquo;Space: Moon Spat&rdquo; (1962); NASA History, lunar orbit rendezvous decision; The National WWII Museum interview with Michael Neufeld; NASA images via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/peenemunde-operation-hydra-raf-raid-v2-rocket-1943\/\">The Night the RAF Bombed Hitler&#8217;s Rocket Base<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/first-v2-london-launched-wassenaar-netherlands-1944\/\">The First V2 on London Was Launched From a Dutch Suburb<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/aero-spacelines-guppy-flying-whales-built-apollo\/\">The Flying Whales That Built Apollo<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 11 September 1962 Wernher von Braun showed John F. Kennedy the Saturn rocket in Huntsville. The next day Kennedy gave his Moon speech. The visit, the argument, and the past behind the man leading the tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":25278007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25278490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kennedy von Braun: The 1962 Saturn Visit Before the Moon Speech | Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kennedy and von Braun at Marshall on 11 September 1962: a Saturn I static firing, a public spat over the Moon plan, and the Nazi past behind the tour guide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-saturn-1962\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kennedy von Braun: The 1962 Saturn Visit Before the Moon Speech | Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kennedy and von Braun at Marshall on 11 September 1962: a Saturn I static firing, a public spat over the Moon plan, and the Nazi past behind the tour guide.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-saturn-1962\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-28T11:29:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-1962.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1552\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Connor Kerr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Connor Kerr\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-saturn-1962\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-saturn-1962\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Connor Kerr\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bc7f2d09b1d7111c45fdb1335b8f2cf9\"},\"headline\":\"Kennedy, von Braun and the Saturn: The Visit Before &ldquo;We Choose to Go to the Moon&rdquo;\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-28T11:29:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-saturn-1962\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1611,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-saturn-1962\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/kennedy-von-braun-marshall-space-flight-center-1962.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Aviation World\",\"History &amp; 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