History of rocket propulsion

Chinese fire arrows

Dec 31, 1232

These were propelled by a rudimentary form of gunpowder made by saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal dust which are now used for fireworks. The gunpowder was packed and attached to a stick which was then attached to an arrow.

Congreve Rockets

Dec 31, 1812

Designed by William Congreve, these rockets were said to have a range of about 6000 yards and sprayed enemies with carbine balls. He invented launching rockets from ships.

Vergeltungswaffe 2 - V2

Dec 31, 1938

Wernher von Braun, along with his team, created the V2 which was powered by alcohol and liquid oxygen. With a range of 200 miles and a maximum altitude of 55 miles, the V2 was the most advanced rocket of its time.

Sputnik I

Oct 4, 1957

The Sputnik I was created by Soviet Russia during the space race with USA. It was a .58 m diameter aluminum sphere that had 4 antennas. It was launched from a stationary launcher and also had a rocket booster to give them a second push once it reached its limit with the first explosion.

Explorer 1

Jan 31, 1958

Created by the same person who created V2, Dr. Wernher Von Braun. It was the first man made American satellite, and sent data back for four months, until it ran out of power from its batteries. Furthermore, it was launched from the Juno booster in Cape Canaveral. It was a huge inspiration to modern satellites.

Freedom 7

May 5, 1961

First United States human spaceflight. Powered by a redstone booster created by NASA, it was originally named Mercury-Redstone 3 but was renamed Freedom 7 by Alan Shepard, its astronaut. It didn't have enough power to make it to the orbit so it had a suborbital flight and landed on earth 15 minutes and 22 seconds later.

Mercury-Atlas 6

Feb 20, 1962

Astronaut, John Glenn, Jr. , became the first American to go into orbit. The Atlas orbited Earth three times for a total of 4 hours and 55 minutes in space. The Atlas had a sensor that detected a certain malfunction in the rocket which led it to come back to Earth. However, it was later confirmed that the rocket had nothing wrong and instead, it was a faulty sensor.

Saturn V

Dec 28, 1972

The Saturn V is a three staged liquid fueled rocket. Originally, it was designed to be used for the moon landing but was instead used for the space station. It was launched 13 times from Kennedy Space Center without any loss of crew or payload. It is the tallest, heaviest and the most powerful rocket to date.

SpaceShipOne

Jun 21, 2004

It is an experimental air-launched, rocket-powered aircraft with suborbital flight. It is powered by a hybrid rocket motor which uses rocket propellants in two different phases - one in solid and the other in gas or liquid. It completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004.

Delta IV

Mar 28, 2017

The rockets were designed to launch payloads into orbit for the United States Air Force and commercial satellite business. Was primarily designed satisfy the needs of the air force. The rocket's components are designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and security division