On the steppe of Astrakhan Oblast, Kapustin Yar launched the Soviet Union's first ballistic missile in 1947 and went on to test its rockets, nuclear warheads and satellite launchers. It is still a military range.
Inside the Kohnstein hill near Nordhausen, the SS and German industry built the V-2 rocket with concentration camp labour. About 60,000 people passed through the Mittelbau-Dora camps, and at least a third did not survive. Part of the tunnel system can be visited on a guided tour.
In August 1943, nearly 600 bombers flew to the Baltic coast under a full moon to destroy the secret rocket centre at Peenemünde. They killed scientists and many prisoners, lost 40 aircraft, and pushed Germany's rocket programme underground.
On a sandy peninsula of the Baltic, German engineers built the world's first long-range ballistic missile, using forced labour to do it. The RAF bombed the site in 1943, the Soviets took what was left in 1945, and today a museum sits in its old power station.
