On October 3, 1942 — 75 years ago this year — a prototype German V-2 rocket launched from the German military firing range at Peenemunde in the Baltic reached an altitude of 84.5 km (52.5 miles). It was, by some definitions, the first human-built object in space.
It was the height of World War Two, and with the entry of the United States into the conflict the tide was already turning against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. They knew, however, that if they could perfect both the world's first ballistic missiles and win the race to an atomic bomb, they would become virtually unassailable.
Had Germany gotten the bomb first, the Allies most likely would have had to sue for peace rather than risk the Hiroshima and Nagasaki-like destruction of many Western cities.
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