History
The very first known rocket was built in China, and was used for fireworks, and also to propel arrows in military use. These primitive weapons used black powder and fired many arrows at once; the only way to effectively use the inaccurate ancient rocket. However, over time, the cannon, and other small hand held guns proved much more accurate, and the rockets practical uses were dropped, leaving it to fireworks.
In 1792, Indian forces fired rockets at the British, and this use of the rocket gave the British a respect for the weapon. They developed rockets, and put explosive warheads on them. The main problems, however, were their relatively short range, and their extreme inaccuracy. What solved this, finally, was the staging system. This put one rocket on top of another, and used an explosive charge to ignite the upper stage and separate the lower one. This allowed the upper stage to keep going, but with much less weight.
There are two major forms of staging: Parallel staging, and tandem staging. In tandem staging, one rocket is placed on top of another one, as explained above. One example is the Saturn V used to launch the Apollo missions. In parallel staging, several rockets are ignited at once, and the inner most rocket outlasts the others, which are dropped off. One example of parallel staging is the space shuttle.
Konstantin E. Tsiolkovlsky was one of the first men to think the rocket fit to go into space. He did extensive work on rocketry, and he was probably the first man to use a nozzle designed to increase the exhaust velocity. Without him, rockets might still be ignored, and the moon still might only be a thing of our imaginations. Tsiolkovlsky is now considered the father of rocketry.
In 1926, Robert Goddard successfully launched the first liquid fuel rocket. This system was very important to space flights, since liquid rockets can be stopped and started. Robert Goddard was the pioneering scientist who did the most work which would affect space travel.
In 1929, in the Soviet Union, rocketry was given official status. This allowed scientists to receive governmental help for their work in rocketry. This was another key event before rockets went into space. The space race sort of began with this event. The very first man-made satellite to fly in space was Sputnik 1. This Soviet achievement made the United States much more determined to beat the Soviets to the moon, and beyond. The Soviets and U.S. both put men into space, but the U.S. was again beaten. In 1969, however, the U.S. had its turn when we walked on the moon first.
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