-
Feb 6, 1213
The First Rockets
The Chinese began experimenting with the gunpowder-filled tubes. At some point, they attached bamboo tubes to arrows and launched them with bows. Soon they discovered that these gunpowder tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced from the escaping gas. The true rocket was born. -
Feb 6, 1220
Johann Schmidlap
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. A large sky rocket (first stage) carried a smaller sky rocket (second stage). When the large rocket burned out, the smaller
one continued to a higher altitude before showering the sky with glowing cinders. Schmidlap's idea is ba -
Feb 6, 1300
The flying chair
Nearly all uses of rockets up to this time were for warfare or fireworks, but there is an interesting old Chinese legend that reported the use of rockets as a means of transportation. With the help of many assistants, a lesser-known Chinese official named Wan-Hu assembled a rocket- powered flying chair. Attached to the chair were two large kites, and fixed to the kites were forty- seven fire-arrow rockets -
Mar 6, 1400
After the war ....
the Mongols produced rockets of their own and may have been responsible for the spread of rockets to Europe. All through the 13th to the 15th centuries there were reports of many rocket experiments. In England, a monk named Roger Bacon worked on improved forms of gunpowder that greatly increased the range of rockets. In France, Jean Froissart found that more accurate flights could be achieved by launching rockets through tubes. Froissart's idea was the forerunner of the modern bazooka. Joanes de -
Rockerty for Science
During the latter part of the 17th century, the scientific foundations for modern rocketry were laid by the great English scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Newton organized his understanding of physical motion into three scientific laws. The laws explain how rockets work and why they are able to work in the vacuum of outer space. Newton's laws soon began to have a practical impact on the design of rockets. About 1720, a Dutch professor, Willem Gravesande, built model cars propelled by jets -
Back to war !
During the end of the 18th century and early into the 19th, rockets experienced a brief revival as a weapon of war. The success of Indian rocket barrages against the British in 1792 and again in 1799 caught the interest of an artillery expert, Colonel William Congreve. Congreve set out to design rockets for use by the British military. -
War and more War
Even with Congreve's work, the accuracy of rockets still had not improved much from the early days. The devastating nature of war rockets was not their accuracy or power, but their numbers. During a typical siege, thousands of them might be fired at the enemy. All over the world, rocket researchers experimented with ways to improve accuracy. An Englishman, William Hale, developed a technique called spin stabilization. In this method, the escaping exhaust gases struck small vanes at the bottom of -
Modern Rocketry Begins
In 1898, a Russian schoolteacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), proposed the idea of space exploration by rocket. In a report he published in 1903, Tsiolkovsky suggested the use of liquid propellants for rockets in order to achieve greater range. Tsiolkovsky stated that the speed and range of a rocket were limited only by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases. For his ideas, careful research, and great vision, Tsiolkovsky has been called the father of modern astronautics -
Robert H Goddart
Early in the 20th century, an American, Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), conducted practical experiments in rocketry. He had become interested in a way of achieving higher altitudes than were possible for lighter-than-air balloons. He published a pamphlet in 1919 entitled A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. It was a mathematical analysis of what is today called the meteorological sounding rocket. -
Goddart Continued
Goddard's earliest experiments were with solid-propellant rockets. In 1915, he began to try various types of solid fuels and to measure the exhaust velocities of the burning gases. While working on solid-propellant rockets, Goddard became convinced that a rocket could be propelled better by liquid fuel. No one had ever built a successful liquid-propellant rocket before. It was a much more difficult task than building solid- propellant rockets. Fuel and oxygen tanks, turbines, and combustion cham -
Hermann Oberth
A third great space pioneer, Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) born on June 25, 1894 in Hermannstadt (Transylvania), and died on December 28, 1989 in Nuremberg, Germany, published a book in 1923 about rocket travel into outer space. His writings were important. Because of them, many small rocket societies sprang up around the world. In Germany, the formation of one such society, the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel), led to the development of the V-2 rocket, which was used against Lo -
V-2 rocket
The V-2 rocket (in Germany called the A-4) was small by comparison to today's rockets. It achieved its great thrust by burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol at a rate of about one ton every seven seconds. Once launched, the V-2 was a formidable weapon that could devastate whole city blocks. Fortunately for London and the Allied forces, the V-2 came too late in the war to change its outcome. Nevertheless, by war's end, German rocket scientists and engineers had already laid plans for a -
The 1st manned ( dogged) spacecraft
On October 4, 1957, the world was stunned by the
news of an Earth-orbiting artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union. Called Sputnik I, the satellite was the first successful entry in a race for space between the two superpower nations. Less than a month later, the Soviets followed with the launch of a satellite carrying a dog named Laika on board. Laika survived in space for seven days before being put to sleep before the oxygen supply ran out. -
NASA
A few months after the first Sputnik, the United States followed the Soviet Union with a satellite of its own. Explorer I was launched by the U.S. Army on January 31, 1958. In October of that year, the United States formally organized its space program by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA became a civilian agency with the goal of peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of all humankind -
First Manned spacecraft
The first human spaceflight was launched on April 12, 1961 by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The only countries to have independent human spaceflight capability are Russia and China. As of 2011, human spaceflights are being actively launched by the Soyuz programme conducted by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Shenzhou program conducted by the China National Space Administration. -
Voyager
Destination: Jupiter and Saturn. Launched: Aug. 20 (Voyager 2) and Sept. 5 (Voyager 1), 1977. Mission: To explore Jupiter and the other outer planets. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 passed Jupiter in 1979 and sent back surprising color TV images of that planet and its moons. Voyager 1 passed Saturn in Nov. 1980. Voyager 2 passed Saturn in Aug. 1981 and Uranus in Jan. 1986. Voyager 2 encountered Neptune in 1989 and discovered four rings around the planet, six new moons, a giant spot, a -
Apollo 8
Apollo 8 was a mission in the Apollo program. It was the first manned spaceflight to leave Earth orbit (in 1968). Commander Frank Borman, Pilot Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were the first people were orbit the Moon. -
Galileo
Destination: Jupiter. Launched: Oct. 18, 1989. Achieved Orbit: Dec. 7, 1995. Mission ended: Sept. 2003. Mission: To study the chemical composition and physical state of the largest planet in the solar system, its atmosphere, and four of its moons. During its 2-year prime mission, Galileo made 11 orbits around Jupiter and visited and photographed Jupiter's large moons Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa. Originally slated to end its explorations in Dec. 1997, Galileo has been favored with a series -
Ulysses
Destination: The Sun. Launched: Oct. 6, 1990. Mission: To study the Sun and map the interstellar space above and below its poles. The spacecraft was put into orbit at right angles to the solar system's ecliptic plane. This special orbit enabled Ulysses to examine for the first time the Sun's north and south polar regions. Besides investigating the Sun, the spacecraft is also studying phenomena from the Milky Way and beyond. The spacecraft completed its first full orbit around the Sun on April 17 -
Mars Global Surveyer
Destination: Mars. Launched: Nov. 7, 1996. Arrival: Sept. 11, 1997. Mission: To provide detailed maps of the planet's surface and distribution of minerals, and to monitor the Martian weather. Six instruments on the orbiting spacecraft are studying Martian surface, atmosphere, and gravitational and magnetic fields. Surveyor's cameras are able to distinguish features as small as 10 ft across. -
Nozomi
Destination: Mars. Launched: July 4, 1998, from Kagoshima Space Center. Arrival: Mission canceled, Dec. 2003. Engine problems forced fuel conservation measures and delayed its scheduled 1999 arrival at Mars until 2004. Mission: To send an orbiter around Mars to study the effect of the solar wind on the planet's atmosphere for one Martian year (687 days). Its cameras will provide photographic data on cloud distribution, polar haze, dust storms, polar ice, and the planet's surface. After its succe -
Startdust
Destination: Comet Wild 2. Launched: Feb. 7, 1999. Returned: Jan. 15, 2006. Mission: To fly through the coma of Comet Wild 2, capture particles spewing out of the comet, take pictures of the comet, and return comet dust samples to Earth. Stardust will be the first mission to return with comet samples. Additionally, the Stardust spacecraft will bring back samples of interstellar dust, which is believed to include remnants from the formation of the solar system. On April 18, 2002, Stardust reached -
Mars Odyssey
Destination: Mars. Launched: April 7, 2001. Arrival: Oct. 24, 2001. Mission: To conduct mineralogical mapping of the planet and study the radiation risk to humans over the course of three years. A goal of the program is to determine if Mars's atmosphere could support life. -
Genesis
Destination: The Sun. Launched: Aug. 8, 2001. Return: Sept. 8, 2004. Mission: To gather samples of charged particles of the solar wind and return them to Earth. The drogue parachute of the return capsule failed to deploy, sending the craft plunging into the Utah desert at 193 miles per hour (311 kilometers per hour). Four of the sample canisters were intact and are undergoing analysis -
Deep Impact
Destination: Comet Tempel 1. Launched: Jan. 12, 2005. Arrival: July 4, 2005. End of project: April 2006. Mission: To look beneath the surface of a comet at material relatively unchanged from the solar system’s formation. With a fiery flash on July 4, 2005, the mission’s probe smashed into the comet at nearly 23,000 miles per hour. The flyby spacecraft took pictures of the impact, collected data from the probe, and flew through the comet’s tail. The project ended in April 2006 Read more: Deep Im -
Starchaser ( NOVA)
Following the maiden flight of NOVA 2 we will be fitting the Starchaser 4 rocket booster with our Mk3 NOVA capsule before flying over 100,000 feet to the very edge of space. The new capsule will be capable of carrying two people; one seat will be reserved for our Starchaser qualified pilot, the other seat together with the role of rocketship navigator is up for grabs The starchaser will fly in Countdown to Nova II: (214 Days, 12 Hours, 57 Minutes, 51 Seconds) -
Joy Rides
Currently scientists are working onspacecrafts to send people up to space on what they call a joy ride. This will allow the average joe ( with money to pay for this) to go up in space for a day and expreiance zero gravity and see the wonders that behold our world. Although some space crafts have been made, the disaters in the past have made us think about this carefully and scientists are going to do a lot of work before they let people fly .