The Soviets gained possession of the V-2 manufacturing facilities after the war, re-established V-2 production, and moved it to the Soviet Union. ![]() The US also captured enough V-2 hardware to build approximately 80 of the missiles. Von Braun and more than 100 core R&D V-2 personnel surrendered to the Americans, and many of the original V-2 team ended up working at the Redstone Arsenal. Teams from the Allied forces-the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union-raced to seize major German manufacturing facilities, procure the Germans' missile technology, and capture the V-2's launching sites. See also rockets and missile systems: The V-2. However, on June 20, 1944, a V-2 reached an altitude of 175 km (109 miles), making it the first rocket to reach space. The rockets travelled at supersonic speed, impacted without audible warning, and proved unstoppable, as no effective defense existed. The payload was about 725 kg (1,600 pounds) of high explosive, horizontal range was about 320 km (200 miles), and the peak altitude usually reached was roughly 80 km (50 miles). According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, while a further 12,000 laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons. Beginning in September 1944, more than 3,000 V-2s were launched by the Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. A series of prototypes culminated in the A-4, which went to war as the V-2. ![]() Research of military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of Wernher von Braun were noticed by the Wehrmacht.
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