Father of the science of astronautics, according to its devotees, is Hermann Oberth, 59. While teaching school in Rumania in 1923, Oberth published The Rocket into Interplanetary Space, a book explaining many principles that enthusiastic space men still use in their projects to fly to the moon. Herr Oberth is now a rather seedy father of space flight. Gaunt and brooding, he lives in a dilapidated ancestral castle near Nürnberg.
Once in a great while Herr Oberth gets dressed in his Sunday best and returns to the subject that gave him his years of glory. Last...
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