[gumby]

> Beginning life as a weapon, the V-2 was pressed into peaceful service after the war at the United States' White Sands Missile Range as well as the Soviet Union's Kapustin Yar.

This is a rather generous explanation. They began as weapons and their use was explored by the militaries of the victorious powers. Those research efforts were primarily to gain the knowledge of how to continue development of rocket weapons.

In the case of the US: NACA worked on air flight only; civilian space research only began with the formation of NASA in 1958.