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First Developed Gunpowder
In 142 AD, during the Han Dynasty, a man named Wei Boyang was the first to write anything about gunpowder. He wrote about a mixture of three powders that would "fly and dance" violently. -
Sep 15, 700
Gunpowder in China is used
under the rule of the T'ang Dynasty, about 700 AD, that people really began to use gunpowder. T'ang Dynasty emperors used gunpowder to put on great fireworks displays. -
Sep 14, 1000
Chinese gunpowder
They attached bamboo tubes to arrows and launched them with bows. Later, they discovered that these gunpowder tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced from the escaping gas. As a result, the first rockets were born. -
Oct 2, 1200
Rocket experiments
All through the 13th to the 15th Century there were reports of many rocket experiments. For example, Joanes de Fontana of Italy designed a surface-running rocket-powered torpedo for setting enemy ships on fire. -
Oct 2, 1232
Rockets in war
In 1232 AD the Chinese used rockets against the Mongols who were besieging the city of Kai-fung-fu. An arrow with a tube of gunpowder produced an arrow of flying fire. -
Scientific Foundations of Rocketry are Laid Out
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. -
Rockets Revived as Weapons
ockets 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. -
Rocket Reaserch
During the 19th century, rocket enthusiasts and inventors began to appear in almost every country. Some people thought these early rocket pioneers were geniuses, and others thought they were crazy. Claude Ruggieri, an Italian living in Paris, apparently rocketed small animals into space as early as 1806. The payloads were recovered by parachute. As depicted here by artist Larry Toschik, French authorities were not always impressed with rocket research. -
Rockets used for fishing
As far back as 1821, sailors hunted whales using rocket-propelled harpoons. These rocket harpoons were launched form a shoulder-held tube equipped with a circular blast shield. Similar to todays very deadly RPG they propelled forward with great speed. -
Rockets for army
In January 1958, a modified Redstone rocket lofted the first American satellite into orbit just 3 months after the Von Braun team received the go-ahead. This modified Redstone rocket was known as a Jupiter-C. Its satellite payload was called Explorer I. -
Marshals center mission
The urgency and importance of the Marshall Center's mission was apparent from the beginning. It became even more apparent on April 12, 1961, when the Soviet, Yuri Gagarin, became the first man in space. -
To the moon
The crowning achievement for the Saturn V rocket came when it launched Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon in July 1969. -
Rockets to space
In 1973, Skylab, America's first space station, was launched aboard a two-stage Saturn V vehicle. Saturn IB rockets were used to launch three different three-man crews to the Skylab space station. -
A new area of rockets
A new era in space flight began on April 12, 1981. That's when the first Space Shuttle mission was launched. The Marshall Space Flight Center developed the propulsion system for the Shuttle. -
Gunpowder first used in rockets
