History of Rocket Propulsion

By hcps-welchrb
  • 400 BCE

    Brief History of Rocket

    Brief History of Rocket
    In Italy, people found out that things have actions and equal and opposite reactions. They invented something called the hero engine. It was a big bowl of water with a fire underneath to let the water steam. Above it was a wheel with a pipe running through it with ends pointed downwards in opposite directions. The steam would push the pipes and turn the wheel.
  • 100

    Chinese and Early Rockets

    Chinese and Early Rockets
    They had early forms of gunpowder like sulfur and charcoal dust. They attempted to create explosions during religious festival and they filled bamboo tubes to throw into fires to explode! They then began experimenting, and attaching them to rods and fins to guide them and forcing the explosion out of one end of the tube.

  • Russia establishes "Rocket Equation"

    Russia establishes "Rocket Equation"
    Russian Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky came up with the "Rocket Equation". The equation relates the rocket's speed with its mass, along with accounting for fuel consumption.

  • First Liquid Fueled Rocket

    First Liquid Fueled Rocket
    Robert Goddard sent the first liquid fueled rocket into the air in Auburn, Massachusetts. He had two patents for a two stage and three stage rocket using solid fuel as well. Goddard sadly passed before the first liquid fueled rocket went to space.

  • Hermann Oberth and the Recoil Rocket

    Hermann Oberth and the Recoil Rocket
    Hermann Oberth, interested in rockets ever since he was 14 years old, thought about the idea of a "recoil rocket". A recoil rocket would move through space with nothing but its own exhaust. He studied multistage rockets as an adult and is connected to aiding the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany.

  • The Present and Future of Rockets

    The Present and Future of Rockets
    Many leaders of science and technology are coming together to try and breakthrough new ideas and come up with new innovations. A very significant company, SpaceX, has begun to lead the Space industry, especially after significant cuts to NASA back in 2011. It is the mission of these rocketry companies to try and make it to Mars, make space travel cheaper, and make it more efficient by re-using parts from each mission!