History of Rocket Propulsion

By hcps-nettemna1
  • 4241 BCE

    Birds

    Birds
    Humans have wanted to fly ever since they saw birds soar through the sky. Ancient Romans and Greeks pictured their Gods as mythological winged animals with winged feet. Both of these points essentially sparked the interest for flight and rockets.
  • 1232 BCE

    Chinese Rockets

    Chinese Rockets
    The Chinese are famously known for using rockets for warfare and celebrations. The Chinese used a version of a rocket to fight against the Mongols as they shot off arrows that we attached to a tub of gunpowder producing an arrow of flying fire.
  • 100 BCE

    Aeolipile

    Aeolipile
    A Greek inventor, Hero of Alexandria, invented the aeolipile, which was a rocket-like device. He was able to use this rocket like design on the mechanical interaction of heat and water. The device was placed above a fire on a water kettle so the heat could turn the water into steam which traveled throughout the pipes of the device and gave thrust to the sphere which caused it to rotate.

  • Weapons

    Weapons
    When rockets were introduced to European countries, they were only used as weapons. The British had rockets that could fire about 9,000 feet and they used them against the United States in the War of 1812. The phrase the rocket's red glare was coined by Francis Scott Key after he saw the rockets fired in the War of 1812.

  • Whale Hunting

    Whale Hunting
    In the 1800s, sailors began to hunt whales using rocket-propelled harpoons. These rockets were shot from a shoulder of the sailor, changing the way we hunt whales.

  • Liquid Propellants

    Liquid Propellants
    A Russian school teacher, Tsiolkovsky, suggested the use of liquid propellants would result in a greater range in a published report in 1903. He also stated that the speed and range of a rocket were limited by exhaust velocity of the escaping gases from the rocket.

  • V-2 Rocket

    V-2 Rocket
    These rockets achieved great thrust by burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol at a rate of one ton every 7 seconds. The V-2 was a military rocket that could devastate whole city blocks, which were created by Germany. One the war ended many German rocket scientists came to America, while the others went to the Soviet Union.

  • Sputnik I

    Sputnik I
    The Soviet Union launched the first ever Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, which successfully started the race for space. It was able to reach space through the use of rockets.

  • Space Landing

    Space Landing
    With the Space Race, the United States build the Marshall Space Flight Center, a NASA field installation, in order to work on projects. Its first major project was the development of the Saturn rockets. Saturn V rocket launched Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon in July 1969.

  • NASA

    NASA
    Currently, rockets are used to progress our space exploration. NASA utilizes the rockets to send rovers and other devices to the moon and mars to see if human life could be sustained.