Hermann Oberth, a pioneer of rocketry, shaped the theoretical foundations of modern spaceflight long before the Space Age. In the 1950s, he consulted with Wernher von Braun’s team in Huntsville, linking Alabama’s laboratories to the broader arc of European rocketry. Beyond NASA, Oberth advised on the Atlas missile program, speculated on concepts like a lunar “catapult,” and even published his beliefs about UFOs—an unconventional dimension of his long career.