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In Acient Greek times, a greek engineer and hero created a steam powered, spinnning device. This may not be one of the great mechanical rockets we know of today, but it was the invention that sparked the idea of rocketry.
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Brief History of Rockets, NASA
In 1232, during the war between the Chinese and the Mongolians, the chinese made minature rockets by caping a small tube filled with gun powder on one side, but leaving the other side open. When the gun powder was ignited, it created fire and thrust, so the mini rockets flew forwards. These could be the first rockets. -
Isaac Newton published his three laws of motion, his law of universal gravitation, and a version of Kepler's laws.
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In the eighteenth century, Indian forcesz used rockets to defest the British, scientists became interested in rocketry. These rockets weren't as accurate as they are now, but in multipes, the rockets could easily destory.
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In 1804, William Congreeve dreated a metal rocket that could fly thousands of yards. As they were developed, these 30 pound rockets became more accurate. All throughout the the rest of the 19th century, these Congreve rockets were used for warfare across the globe.
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William Moore published Treatise on the Motion of Rockets, which included the first exposition of rocket mechanics using Newton's laws of motion.
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After many studies had shown that rockets would be more accurate if they supn, Englishman William Hale decided to test out this theory. These "Hale" rockets were the first spin-stablized rockets, and became military standard for many countries. Although these were accuraate, they couldn't fly far. In spite of this, they became the first US miltary rockets.
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Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian physicist, was the fisrt to propose that rockets could work outside of Earth's atmosphere. Before this, nobody had thought of this idea. Tsiolkovsky was the brilliant person who created the idea that made modern space exploration possible
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Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices, the first serious work to be published showing space exploration to be theoretically possible.
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Robert Hutchings Goddard was the first to think that rockets could be propelled by liquid fuel. He launched the first liquid propelled rocket in 1926. This 10 pound rocket was 41 by 184 feet. This modernized rocketry and earned Goddard the title of founder of American rocketry.
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The solid-core nuclear thermal rocket, called NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application), was developed by the United States between 1955 and 1973. However, because of changing national space program objectives, the development of this nuclear rocket engine ended just prior to flight demonstration.
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The USSR launched Sputnik 1, weighing in at only 154 pounds, as the first artificial satellite.
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On July 20,1969 Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin took the first steps on the moon. The Apollo 11 mission achieved the national goal set by President Kennedy in 1961—namely landing human beings on the surface of the Moon and returning them safely to Earth within the decade of the 1960s.
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The first three EELV missions were all successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida. The launch of the first Vehicle took place on August 21, 2002 and placed a commercial satellite to orbit (Lockheed-Martin's Atlas V). The Boeing Company accomplished the first government launch of an EELV on March 10, 2003, the Delta IV rocket. It carried the DSCS A3 military communications satellite into orbit.
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"NASA's Messenger spacecraft becomes the first man made craft to orbit the closest planet to the Sun. The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft begins its mission to map and photograph the planet's surface in high resolution. It will also study the planet's thin atmosphere and search for signs of water that could lie frozen beneath the surface."
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"NASA's New Horizons spacecraft arrives at Pluto after a journey of more than 9 years and 4.6 billion miles. As the spacecraft makes its closest approach, it passes only 7,750 miles (12,472 km) from the surface of the dwarf planet and captures amazing high-resolution images of Pluto and its largest moon Charon. New data shows that Pluto is about 50 miles (80 km) larger than previously thought and that it has a nitrogen atmosphere extending tens of thousands of miles out into space."
