Space Rockets
Ever since after WWII, chemical rocket engines have been the mainstay of space propulsion. Rockets themselves have been around since the twelve hundreds when the Chinese invented gunpowder, but they weren't useful for space until the German's made such an advance during WWII. Chemical rockets consist of either liquid, or solid rocket engines. They produce very little thrust for their weights, and therefore need to be very heavy to reach space. They are at an extreme disadvantage, and are being phased out for better engines. The age of the ion engine, and anti-matter drives is here, literally.
History of rockets

In the future, new space drives will be used to propell humans to our nearest bretheren stars, and new, powerful engines will launch us into space in half the time, with half the vehicle, with half the money, and with twice the payload.

Possible Future Space Drives

The ion drive
Fusion and antimatter drives
Light sails
Laser propelled light craft
Space Tethers
Ramjet/Scramjet engines
Other earth to orbit propulsion

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