“Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing.”

—  Wernher von Braun

In an interview in the New York Times (16 December 1957), cited in a footnote on page 32 of "Work, Society, and Culture" by Yves Reni Marie Simon, and also in a footnote (in German) on page 360 of "Vita activa oder Vom taetigen Leben" by Hannah Arend (1981)

Variants:

Basic research is when I'm doing what I don't know I'm doing.

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.

Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing.

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Wernher von Braun 22
German, later an American, aerospace engineer and space arc… 1912–1977

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