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  the first rocket propellers made were Chinese fireworks in 1232 AD.
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  13th to the 15th centuries. Mongols produced rockets of their own and may have been responsible for the spread of rockets to Europe.
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  By the 16th century rockets fell into a time of disuse as weapons of war, though they were still used for fireworks displays, and a German fireworks maker, Johann Schmidlap, invented the "step rocket," a multi-staged vehicle for lifting fireworks to higher altitudes
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  William Congreve made it. Used by British ships to pound Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. 1792
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  Goddard built it in 1915. His rockets became bigger and flew higher. He developed a gyroscope system for flight control and a payload compartment for scientific instruments.
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  The satellite was the first successful entry in a race for space between the two superpower nations, built in 1957
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  A few months after the first Sputnik, the United States followed the Soviet Union with a satellite of its own in 1958.
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  1970's. Standing as high as a skyscraper, the vehicle literally made the ground shake underfoot when the engines were ignited for liftoff
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  Rockets have been used to launch many post-Apollo piloted missions, including Skylab, and the many STS missions. 21st century
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  Rockets have also launched unpiloted military satellites, communications' satellites, weather satellites, Earth observing satellites, planetary spacecraft, planetary surface rovers, the Hubble Space Telescope, and so on. 21st century