Portrait of Hermann Oberth
NASA
Hermann Oberth
Hermann Oberth was born in Transylvania, Romania. He was a physicist who lived between 1894-1989. At a young age, he read fantasy books about voyages to the moon, but became convinced that space travel was very possible.
Oberth studied rockets and wrote books on how they could be used to launch objects into space. He originated the idea of stages, which explained that once a fuel tank is empty, it should be dropped away so that its weight doesn't slow down the spaceship.
Last modified March 10, 2003 by Lisa Gardiner.
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