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Did you know about the man who wanted to ride a rocket into space?

Preparations for a V-2 test firing in May 1946 at White Sands Proving Ground. Invited guests in the bottom left corner are British Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson, U.S. Admiral DeWitt Ramsey, and U.S. General Joe Stilwell, all prominent commanders in World War II.
(Photo: White Sands Missile Range Museum)

The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and France were happy to loot the remains of Nazi Germany for advanced technology after World War II. One major price was rocket technology: the victors were quick to get their hands on the remaining stockpiles of V-2 rockets, one of Hitler’s “vengeance weapons”, and the scientists who developed them. Many of these captured rockets were then used by the Allies in their own rocketry research, and in the first steps toward conquering space.

A V-2 launch in 1943 (Photo: Bundesarchiv)

One particular V-2, launched in the U.S. in October 1946, carried a camera that took the first-ever photograph of Earth from space. The idea of carrying a man into space also started floating around the same year. Though the V-2 could not reach orbit around Earth, it was speculated it could still reach an altitude of 100 miles (160 km) or more along a parabolic trajectory, temporarily reaching outer space. (In fact, the Germans already did that with a non-manned V-2 in June 1944.)

The first photo of Earth from space, taken by an American-launched V-2
(Photo: U.S. Army)

In May the same year, one Mark Ridge of Dorchester, Massachusetts, volunteered to ride a V-2 while wearing a special protective suit, either inside the rocket or attached to its surface. The media caught whiff of the courageous (or foolhardy) offer and asked the experts; the experts said that the ride sounded plausible, as there was enough empty space inside the rocket to hold a man, and he could probably survive the acceleration. Predictably, the problem turned out to be the return, since the V-2 was designed to crash, rather than land, and there was no way Mr. Ridge would have survived the adventure. The gallant offer to become the first astronaut in history was rejected.

That’s not to say there weren’t other plans to achieve the same ends. In the same year, 1946, the British Interplanetary Society proposed to put a man in space in a heavily modified V-2. It’s generally agreed that the so-called Megaroc would have worked, and could have given humanity an astronaut by 1951, 10 years before Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight. Unfortunately, British economy was still reeling from the war, and whatever research resources there available were given to aircraft and nuclear research.

A sketch of the planned Megaroc rocket (Image. British Interplanetary Society)

The Soviet Union was also making plans, with rocket pioneer Mikhail Tikhonravov proposing a similar, but less heavily modified vehicle. The plan fell through, as Stalin decided to dismantle all V-2 facilities located in the Soviet-controlled sector of Germany, and move everything to the Soviet Union. Research into space rocket was only resumed a few years later, and then only with smaller capsules for animals.

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