<P> At war's end, American, British, and Soviet scientific intelligence teams competed to capture Germany's rocket engineers along with the German rockets themselves and the designs on which they were based . Each of the Allies captured a share of the available members of the German rocket team, but the United States benefited the most with Operation Paperclip, recruiting von Braun and most of his engineering team, who later helped develop the American missile and space exploration programs . The United States also acquired a large number of complete V2 rockets . </P> <P> The German rocket center in Peenemünde was located in the eastern part of Germany, which became the Soviet zone of occupation . On Stalin's orders, the Soviet Union sent its best rocket engineers to this region to see what they could salvage for future weapons systems . The Soviet rocket engineers were led by Sergei Korolev . He had been involved in space clubs and early Soviet rocket design in the 1930s, but was arrested in 1938 during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and imprisoned for six years in Gulag . After the war, he became the USSR's chief rocket and spacecraft engineer, essentially the Soviet counterpart to von Braun . His identity was kept a state secret throughout the Cold War, and he was identified publicly only as "the Chief Designer ." In the West, his name was only officially revealed when he died in 1966 . </P> <P> After almost a year in the area around Peenemünde, Soviet officials conducted Operation Osoaviakhim and later moved more than 170 of the top captured German rocket specialists to Gorodomlya Island on Lake Seliger, about 240 kilometers (150 mi) northwest of Moscow . They were not allowed to participate in final Soviet missile design, but were used as problem - solving consultants to the Soviet engineers . They helped in the following areas: the creation of a Soviet version of the A-4; work on "organizational schemes"; research in improving the A-4 main engine; development of a 100 - ton engine; assistance in the "layout" of plant production rooms; and preparation of rocket assembly using German components . With their help, particularly Helmut Gröttrup's group, Korolev reverse - engineered the A-4 and built his own version of the rocket, the R - 1, in 1948 . Later, he developed his own distinct designs, though many of these designs were influenced by the Gröttrup Group's G4 - R10 design from 1949 . The Germans were eventually repatriated in 1951--53 . </P> <P> The American professor Robert H. Goddard had worked on developing solid - fuel rockets since 1914, and demonstrated a light battlefield rocket to the US Army Signal Corps only five days before the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. He also started developing liquid - fueled rockets in 1921; yet he had not been taken seriously by the public . </P>

What effect did the cold war have on the american space program