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German-born rocket scientist who helped develop the American program that took
men to the Moon in 1969. One of 118 top German rocket experts secretly brought
to the United States after World War II, Rudolph became project manager of the
Saturn V rocket, which powered the Apollo
missions. In 1984, nearly a decade after he retired, the Department of Justice
accused Rudolph of participating in a slave-labor program when he was operations
director of a V-2 rocket factory during the war. Though
he contested the charges, Rudolph relinquished his American citizenship and returned
to Germany. While the Justice Department did not pursue his case, he was refused
a United States visa in 1989 to attend a 20th-anniversary celebration of the first
Moon landing.
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