Any visitor to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center knows about the Saturn V, the giant rocket that made it possible for men to reach the moon. And while you're touring the musueum, you'll see displays dedicated to any number of other vehicles that played important roles along the way, from the Redstone rockets that launched the first Americans into space to the lunar modules that allowed men to land safely on the moon.

But the museum's collection includes another vehicle -- less well-known, less spectacular -- that also played a vital role in the voyage to the moon: a simple bicycle.

As the Third Reich was collapsing in early 1945, Wernher von Braun made the decision that he wanted to surrender with his rocket team to the United States army. He believed the team would fare better with the Americans than with the Soviet Union in terms of how they were treated, and also that he would be more likely to accomplish his goal of space exploration in the United States than in the USSR.

The question became, how to do it? Von Braun knew that it was important to avoid German detection so that their defection wouldn't be prevented. (What he didn't know, however, was just how important it was -- Hitler had already signed an order that the team be executed to prevent their skills from falling into enemy hands.) It was also important to avoid encountering Soviet forces, who would likely capture them and take them back to Russia.

Von Braun organized an escape from the team's facility at Peenemunde into Austria. On May 3, after hearing the news of Adolf Hitler's death three days earlier, von Braun decided that it was time to make contact with the Americans, choosing one representative to find them and arrange for the team's surrender.

His brother, Magnus von Braun, who spoke some English, took a bicycle and went off to meet the enemy army, with only a white handkerchief tied to the handlebars of the bike to signal his peaceful intentions. An American sentry took Magnus to his commanding officer, who provided passes for the team to ensure they could safely reach the American encampment. The team would remain in Europe for a while longer before finally arriving in the United States 67 years ago this week, on Sept. 20, 1945.

That bike ride proved to be an important step on the path to the moon. Von Braun's team became the heart of the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which then became the foundation of Marshall Space Flight Center, which developed the Saturn V rocket that launched men to the moon during the Apollo program.

Throughout the U.S. Space & Rocket Center are exhibits that pay tribute to the bravery that fueled exploration -- like the courage of a 25-year-old German engineer, heading off to meet the enemy with nothing but a little English, a white handkerchief and a bicycle.