V2 Rocket Engine
The V2 Rocket Engine changed the future in 1944
The Nazis built it to fire missiles at London. So why have we chosen a weapon of war to celebrate our centenary?
The future then...
The V2 rocket engine launched us into space. But as the power behind the first long-range missiles, it also threatened to destroy our world. An engine of war and discovery, the V2 has a legacy that still looms over us today.
The future now...
Rockets are fantastically expensive, so how else could we get into space in the future? One idea is a ‘space elevator’ to carry people and equipment into orbit. Vehicles could move up and down a super-strong cable connecting the Earth’s surface to an orbiting space station.
‘Growing up in the 1960s, I remember being glued to the TV watching rockets blasting astronauts into space. Without V2 there’d have been no Moon walks, no satellites, no GPS - imagine that...’
Dave Patten, Head of New Media
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We want to know what invention or discovery has changed your life... Could it be the iPod, IVF or the internet? What would you choose?