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The pigeon was steam propelled and suspended on wires. This pigeon used the action-reaction principle stating that for every action there is an equally opposite reaction. The action reaction principle was not actually known at this time, though.
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The Chinese scared away the Mongols with "arrows of flying fire." These arrow are what we now know as rockets. One end of the rocket contained gunpowder, and when ignited, the fire, smoke, and gas escaped out the tube to produce a thrust.
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The step rocket is a multi staged rocket that was used to life fireworks into higher altitudes. A large rocket carried a smaller rocket, like many modern rockets today. The smaller rocket continued to a higher altitude after the larger rocket burned out.
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Newton organized his understanding of physical motion into 3 laws. They help to explain how rockets work and had a large impact of the design on rockets.
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Tsiolkovsky suggested the use of liquid propellants for rockets. He stated that speed and range of rockets were limited by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases.
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Robert Goddard built the word's first liquid propellant rocket. This only flew about 12.5 feet but was the foundation for the Saturn V Moon rocket.
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The V2, the most advanced rocket of this time was flown on the shores of the Baltic Sea. The rocket was propelled by alcohol and liquid oxygen.
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The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first successful entry in the race for space. The braking nozzle on the rocket employed gas, which pressurized an oxidizer tank during the powered flight.
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SpaceShipOne became the first private space vehicle to climb above 100km. This rocket uses a hybrid, both solid and liquid, motor and is propelled by a mixture of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene.
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The Saturn V rocket was capable of launching 117,900 kg in to low Earth orbit. A large combustion chamber is where RP-1 fuel and LOX are injected at high pressure. Above the injector is the LOX dome which also transmits the force of the thrust from the engine to the rocket's structure.
