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By the year 1000, weapons using gunpoder were widely used. These included flamethrowers, rockets, bombs, and landmines.
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In 1044, a Doaist text referencing gunpowder was written. It was earliest evidence of the knowledge of gunpowder.
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In 1680, Russian czar Peter the Great established a rocket-manufacturing facility near Moscow.
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In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published the three laws of motion, which applied to rockets along with all matter on earth, and beyond.
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In the war of 1812, the British attacked Fort McHenry in the harbor of Baltimore. This battle is forever remembered in "The Star-Spangled Banner." It is the most famous use of Congreve's rockets, as they are referred to in the line "rockets' red glare."
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in 1844, British inventor William Hale invented the "spinning rocket." This was an improvement from Congreve's stick-guided rockets because as the gases erupted from the rocket, they caused it to spin, dramatically increasing the accuracy.
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In 1865 French writer Jules Verne wrote the novel De la Terre à la Lune(From the Earth to the Moon). It was a somewhat credible depiction of space travel before it was a widespread idea. It served as an inspiration for future astronomists, such as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, and Hermann Oberth.
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In 1903, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published his greatest work, "Cosmic Space by Means of Rocket Devices." In it, he correctly calculated "escape velocity," 8 km per second.
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On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit, triggering the space race.
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On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first space traveler into space, a dog named Laika.
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On January 31, 1958, the U.S. launched their first satellite into space, Explorer 1.
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On Jully 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men on the moon.
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In 2001, California businessman became the first commercial space passenger when he paid Russia $20 million to let him fly with cosmonauts to ISS.
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On February 3, 2003, the spaceshuttle Columbia exploded in its descent, only 16 minutes from landing. All seven crew members were killed. Following this, all space shuttle missions were suspended indefinitely.
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In June of 2004, the first privately built and manned spaceship, SpaceShipOne, was launched in the Mojave Desert in California. This was a big step towards space tourism. The launch was for a $10 million reward from the X Prize Foundation to create a low-cost vehicle for commercial space travel.
