Brief History of T oday’s rockets are remarkable collections of

human ingenuity that have their roots in the

science and technology of the past. They are
Rockets natural outgrowths of literally thousands of years of
experimentation and research on rockets and rocket
propulsion.
One of the first devices to successfully
employ the principles essential to rocket flight was a
wooden bird. The writings of Aulus Gellius, a
Roman, tell a story of a Greek named Archytas who
lived in the city of Tarentum, now a part of southern
Italy. Somewhere around the year 400 B.C.,
Archytas mystified and amused the citizens of
Tarentum by flying a pigeon made of wood.
Escaping steam propelled the bird suspended on
wires. The pigeon used the action-reaction
principle, which was not to be stated as a scientific
law until the 17th century.
About three hundred years after the pigeon,
another Greek, Hero of Alexandria, invented a
similar rocket-like device called an aeolipile. It,
too, used steam as a propulsive gas. Hero
mounted a sphere on top of a water kettle.
A fire below the kettle turned the water into
steam, and the gas traveled through pipes
to the sphere. Two L-shaped tubes on
opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas
to escape, and in doing so gave a thrust to the
sphere that caused it to rotate.
Just when the first true rockets appeared is
unclear. Stories of early rocket-like devices appear
sporadically through the historical records of various
cultures. Perhaps the first true rockets were
accidents. In the first century A.D., the
Chinese reportedly had a simple form of
gunpowder made from saltpeter, sulfur, and
charcoal dust. They used the gunpowder
mostly for fireworks in religious and other
festive celebrations. To create explosions
during religious festivals, they filled bamboo tubes
with the mixture and tossed them into fires.
Perhaps some of those tubes failed to explode and
instead skittered out of the fires, propelled by the
gases and sparks produced from the burning
gunpowder.
The Chinese began experimenting with the
gunpowder-filled tubes. At some point, they
attached bamboo tubes to arrows and launched
them with bows. Soon they discovered that
these gunpowder tubes could launch
themselves just by the power produced
from the escaping gas. The true rocket was
born.
Hero Engine

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 The date reporting the first use of true By the 16th century rockets fell into a time of
rockets was in 1232. At this time, the Chinese and disuse as weapons of war, though they were still
the Mongols were at war with each other. During used for fireworks displays, and a German fireworks
the battle of Kai-Keng, the Chinese repelled the maker, Johann Schmidlap, invented the “step
Mongol invaders by a barrage of “arrows of flying rocket,” a multi-staged vehicle for lifting fireworks to
fire.” These fire-arrows were a simple form of a higher altitudes. A large sky rocket (first stage)
solid-propellant rocket. A tube, capped at one end, carried a smaller sky rocket (second stage). When
contained gunpowder. The other end was left open the large rocket burned out, the smaller one
and the tube was attached to a long stick. When continued to a higher altitude before showering the
the powder ignited, the rapid burning of the powder sky with glowing cinders. Schmidlap’s idea is basic
produced fire, smoke, and gas that escaped out the to all rockets today that go into outer space.
open end and produced a thrust. The stick acted as Nearly all uses of rockets up to this time
were for warfare or fireworks, but an interesting old
Chinese legend reports the use of rockets as a
means of transportation. With the help of many

Chinese Fire-Arrows

a simple guidance system that kept the rocket

headed in one general direction as it flew through
the air. How effective these arrows of flying fire
Surface-Running Torpedo
were as weapons of destruction is not clear, but
their psychological effects on the Mongols must assistants, a lesser-known Chinese official named
have been formidable. Wan-Hu assembled a rocket-powered flying chair.
Following the battle of Kai-Keng, the He had two large kites attached to the chair, and
Mongols produced rockets of their own and may fixed to the kites were forty-seven fire-arrow
have been responsible for the spread of rockets to rockets.
Europe. Many records describe rocket experiments On the day of the flight, Wan-Hu sat himself
through out the 13th to the 15th centuries. In on the chair and gave the command to light the
England, a monk named Roger Bacon worked on rockets. Forty-seven rocket assistants, each armed
improved forms of gunpowder that greatly increased with torches, rushed forward to light the fuses. A
the range of rockets. In France, Jean Froissart tremendous roar filled the air, accompanied by
achieved more accurate flights by launching rockets billowing clouds of smoke. When the smoke
through tubes. Froissart’s idea was the forerunner cleared, Wan-Hu and his flying chair were gone. No
of the modern bazooka. Joanes de Fontana of Italy one knows for sure what happened to Wan-Hu, but
designed a surface-running rocket-powered torpedo if the event really did take place, Wan-Hu and his
for setting enemy ships on fire. chair probably did not survive the explosion. Fire-
arrows were as apt to explode as to fly.

Rocketry Becomes a Science

During the latter part of the 17th century, the

great English scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-
1727) laid the scientific foundations for modern
rocketry. 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. (See Rocket
Principles for more information on Newton’s Three
Laws of Motion beginning on page 13.)

Chinese soldier launches a fire-arrow.

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 Austrian rocket brigades met their match against
newly designed artillery pieces. Breech-loading
cannon with rifled barrels and exploding warheads
were far more effective weapons of war than the
best rockets. Once again, the military relegated
rocketry to peacetime uses.

Modern Rocketry Begins

In 1898, a Russian schoolteacher,

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), proposed the
idea of space exploration by rocket. In a report he
published in 1903, Tsiolkovsky suggested the use of
Legendary Chinese official Wan Hu braces
himself for "liftoff."
liquid propellants for rockets in order to achieve
greater range. Tsiolkovsky stated that only the
exhaust velocity of escaping gases limited the
speed and range of a rocket. For his ideas, careful
Newton’s laws soon began to have a
research, and great vision, Tsiolkovsky has been
practical impact on the design of rockets. About
called the father of modern astronautics.
1720, a Dutch professor, Willem Gravesande, built
Early in the 20th century, an American,
model cars propelled by jets of steam. Rocket
Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), conducted
experimenters in Germany and Russia began
practical experiments in rocketry. He had become
working with rockets with a mass of more than 45
interested in a way of achieving higher altitudes
kilograms. Some of these rockets were so powerful
than were possible for lighter-than-air balloons. He
that their escaping exhaust flames bored deep
published a pamphlet in 1919 entitled A Method of
holes in the ground even before liftoff.
Reaching Extreme Altitudes. Today we call this
During the end of the 18th century and early
mathematical analysis the meteorological sounding
into the 19th, rockets experienced a brief revival as
rocket.
a weapon of war. The success of Indian rocket
In his pamphlet, Goddard reached several
barrages against the British in 1792 and again in
conclusions important to rocketry. From his tests,
1799 caught the interest of an artillery expert,
he stated that a rocket operates with greater
Colonel William Congreve. Congreve set out to
design rockets for use by the British military.
The Congreve rockets were highly
successful in battle. Used by British ships to pound
Fort McHenry in the War of 1812, they inspired
Francis Scott Key to write “the rockets’ red glare,” in
his poem that later became The Star-Spangled
Banner.
Even with Congreve’s work, the accuracy of
rockets still had not improved much from the early
days. The devastating nature of war rockets was
not their accuracy or power, but their numbers.
During a typical siege, thousands of them might be
fired at the enemy. All over the world, rocket
researchers experimented with ways to improve
accuracy. An Englishman, William Hale, developed
a technique called spin stabilization. In this method,
the escaping exhaust gases struck small vanes at
the bottom of the rocket, causing it to spin much as
a bullet does in flight. Many rockets still use
variations of this principle today.
Rocket use continued to be successful in
battles all over the European continent. Tsiolkovsky Rocket Designs
However, in a war with Prussia, the
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efficiency in a vacuum than in air. At the
time, most people mistakenly believed that
the presence of air was necessary for a
rocket to push against. A New York Times
newspaper editorial of the day mocked
Goddard’s lack of the “basic physics ladled
out daily in our high schools.” Goddard
also stated that multistage or step rockets
were the answer to achieving high altitudes
and that the velocity needed to escape
Earth’s gravity could be achieved in this
way.
Goddard’s earliest experiments
were with solid-propellant rockets. In 1915,
he began to try various types of solid fuels
and to measure the exhaust velocities of
the burning gases.
While working on solid-propellant
rockets, Goddard became convinced that a
rocket could be propelled better by liquid
fuel. No one had ever built a successful
liquid-propellant rocket before. It was a
much more difficult task than building solid-
propellant rockets. Fuel and oxygen tanks,
turbines, and combustion chambers would

Dr. Robert H. Goddard makes adjustments on the

upper end of a rocket combustion chamber in this 1940
picture taken in Roswell, New Mexico.

be needed. In spite of the difficulties, Goddard

achieved the first successful flight with a liquid-
propellant rocket on March 16, 1926. Fueled by
liquid oxygen and gasoline, the rocket flew for only
two and a half seconds, climbed 12.5 meters, and
landed 56 meters away in a cabbage patch. By
today’s standards, the flight was unimpressive, but
like the first powered airplane flight by the Wright
brothers in 1903, Goddard’s gasoline rocket
became the forerunner of a whole new era in rocket
flight.
Goddard’s experiments in liquid-propellant
rockets continued for many years. His rockets grew
bigger and flew higher. He developed a gyroscope
system for flight control and a payload compartment
for scientific instruments. Parachute recovery
systems returned the rockets and instruments safely
to the ground. We call Goddard the father of
modern rocketry for his achievements.
A third great space pioneer, Hermann
Oberth (1894-1989) of Germany, published a book
Dr. Goddard's 1926 Rocket in 1923 about rocket travel into outer space. His
writings were important. Because of them,
many small rocket societies sprang up
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Rockets: A Teacher's Guide with Activities in Science, Mathematics, and Technology EG-108 February 1996
around the world. In Germany, the formation of one
such society, the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society
for Space Travel), led to the development of the V-2
rocket, which the Germans used against London
during World War II. In 1937, German engineers
and scientists, including Oberth, assembled in
Peenemunde on the shores of the Baltic Sea.
There, under the directorship of Wernher von
Braun, engineers and scientists built and flew the
most advanced rocket of its time.
The V-2 rocket (in Germany called the A-4) Warhead
was small by comparison to today’s rockets. It (Explosive charge)
achieved its great thrust by burning a mixture of
liquid oxygen and alcohol at a rate of about one ton Automatic gyro
every seven seconds. Once launched, the V-2 was control
a formidable weapon that could devastate whole Guidebeam and radio
city blocks. command receivers
Fortunately for London and the Allied forces,
the V-2 came too late in the war to change its
outcome. Nevertheless, by war’s end, German
rocket scientists and engineers had already laid
Container for
plans for advanced missiles capable of spanning alcohol-water
the Atlantic Ocean and landing in the United States. mixture
These missiles would have had winged upper
stages but very small payload capacities.
With the fall of Germany, the Allies captured
many unused V-2 rockets and components. Many
German rocket scientists came to the United States.
Others went to the Soviet Union. The German
scientists, including Wernher von Braun, were
amazed at the progress Goddard had made. Container for
Both the United States and the Soviet Union liquid oxygen
recognized the potential of rocketry as a military Container for
weapon and began a variety of experimental turbine propellant
programs. At first, the United States began a (hydrogen peroxide)
program with high-altitude atmospheric sounding Propellant
rockets, one of Goddard’s early ideas. Later, they Vaporizer for turbine turbopump
propellant (propellant
developed a variety of medium- and long-range turbopump drive)
intercontinental ballistic missiles. These became Steam
Oxygen main exhaust
the starting point of the U.S. space program. from turbine
Missiles such as the Redstone, Atlas, and Titan valve
would eventually launch astronauts into space. Rocket motor
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union
stunned the world by launching an Earth-orbiting Alcohol
main
artificial satellite. Called Sputnik I, the satellite was valve
the first successful entry in a race for space
between the two superpower nations. Less than a
month later, the Soviets followed with the launch of
a satellite carrying a dog named Laika on board. Jet vane Air vane
Laika survived in space for seven days before being
put to sleep before the oxygen supply ran out. German V-2 (A-4) Missile
A few months after the first Sputnik, the
United States followed the Soviet Union with a
satellite of its own. The U.S. Army

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launched Explorer I on January 31, 1958. In five minutes of microgravity then returned to Earth,
October of that year, the United States formally during which he encountered forces twelve times
organized its space program by creating the greater than the force of gravity. Twenty days later,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration though still technically behind the Soviet Union,
(NASA). NASA became a civilian agency with the President John Kennedy announced the objective to
goal of peaceful exploration of space for the benefit put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
of all humankind. In February of 1962, John Glen became the
Soon, rockets launched many people and first American to orbit Earth in a small capsule so
machines into space. Astronauts orbited Earth and filled with equipment that he only had room to sit.
landed on the Moon. Robot spacecraft traveled to Launched by the more powerful Atlas vehicle, John
the planets. Space suddenly opened up to explor- Glen remained in orbit for four hours and fifty-five
ation and commercial exploitation. Satellites minutes before splashing down in the Atlantic
enabled scientists to investigate our world, forecast Ocean. The Mercury program had a total of six
the weather, and communicate instantaneously launches: two suborbital and four orbital. These
around the globe. The demand for more and larger launches demonstrated the United States’ ability to
payloads created the need to develop a wide array send men into orbit, allowed the crew to function in
of powerful and versatile rockets. space, operate the spacecraft, and make scientific
Scientific exploration of space using robotic observations.
spacecraft proceeded at a fast pace. Both Russia The United States then began an extensive
and the United States began programs to investi- unmanned program aimed at supporting the
gate the Moon. Developing the technology to manned lunar landing program. Three separate
physically get a probe to the Moon became the projects gathered information on landing sites and
initial challenge. Within nine months of Explorer 1 other data about the lunar surface and the sur-
the United States launched the first unmanned lunar rounding environment. The first was the Ranger
probe, but the launch vehicle, an Atlas with an Able series, which was the United States first attempt to
upper stage, failed 45 seconds after liftoff when the
payload fairing tore away from the vehicle. The
Russians were more successful with Luna 1, which
flew past the Moon in January of 1959. Later that
year the Luna program impacted a probe on the
Moon, taking the first pictures of its far side. Be-
tween 1958 and 1960 the United States sent a
series of missions, the Pioneer Lunar Probes, to
photograph and obtain scientific data about the
Moon. These probes were generally unsuccessful,
primarily due to launch vehicle failures. Only one of
eight probes accomplished its intended mission to
the Moon, though several, which were stranded in
orbits between Earth and the Moon, did provide
important scientific information on the number and
extent of the radiation belts around Earth. The
United States appeared to lag behind the Soviet
Union in space.
With each launch, manned spaceflight came
a step closer to becoming reality. In April of 1961, a
Russian named Yuri Gagarin became the first man
to orbit Earth. Less than a month later the United
States launched the first American, Alan Shepard,
into space. The flight was a sub-orbital lofting into
space, which immediately returned to Earth. The
Redstone rocket was not powerful enough to place Close-up picture of the Moon taken by the Ranger
the Mercury capsule into orbit. The flight lasted only 9 spacecraft just before impact. The small circle
a little over 15 minutes and reached an altitude of to the left is the impact site.
187 kilometers. Alan Shepard experienced about

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take close-up photographs of the Moon. The
spacecraft took thousands of black and white
photographs of the Moon as it descended and
crashed into the lunar surface. Though the Ranger
series supplied very detailed data, mission planners
for the coming Apollo mission wanted more exten-
sive data.
The final two lunar programs were designed
to work in conjunction with one another. Lunar
Orbiter provided an extensive map of the lunar
surface. Surveyor provided detailed color photo-
graphs of the lunar surface as well as data on the
elements of the lunar sediment and an assessment
of the ability of the sediment to support the weight of
the manned landing vehicles. By examining both
sets of data, planners were able to identify sites for
the manned landings. However, a significant
problem existed, the Surveyor spacecraft was too
large to be launched by existing Atlas/Agena
rockets, so a new high energy upper stage called
the Centaur was developed to replace the Agena
specifically for this mission. The Centaur upper
stage used efficient hydrogen and oxygen propel-
lants to dramatically improve its performance, but
the super cold temperatures and highly explosive
nature presented significant technical challenges.
In addition, they built the tanks of the Centaur with
thin stainless steel to save precious weight. Moder-
ate pressure had to be maintained in the tank to
prevent it from collapsing upon itself. Rocket A fish-eye camera view of a Saturn 5 rocket just after
building was refining the United State's capability to engine ignition.
explore the Moon.
The Gemini was the second manned
capsule developed by the United States. It was developed the Saturn launch vehicle. The Apollo
designed to carry two crew members and was capsule, or command module, held a crew of three.
launched on the largest launch vehicle available— The capsule took the astronauts into orbit about the
the Titan II. President Kennedy’s mandate signifi- Moon, where two astronauts transferred into a lunar
cantly altered the Gemini mission from the general module and descended to the lunar surface. After
goal of expanding experience in space to prepare completing the lunar mission, the upper section of
for a manned lunar landing on the Moon. It paved the lunar module returned to orbit to rendezvous
the way for the Apollo program by demonstrating with the Apollo capsule. The Moonwalkers trans-
rendezvous and docking required for the lunar ferred back to the command module and a service
lander to return to the lunar orbiting spacecraft, the module, with an engine, propelled them back to
extravehicular activity (EVA) required for the lunar Earth. After four manned test flights, Apollo 11
surface exploration and any emergency repairs, and astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on
finally the ability of humans to function during the the moon. The United States returned to the lunar
eight day manned lunar mission duration. The surface five more times before the manned lunar
Gemini program launched ten manned missions in program was completed. After the lunar program
1965 and 1966, eight flights rendezvous and the Apollo program and the Saturn booster
docked with unmanned stages in Earth orbit and launched Skylab, the United State's first space
seven performed EVA. station. A smaller version of the Saturn vehicle
Launching men to the moon required launch ransported the United States' crew for the first
vehicles much larger than those available. To rendezvous in space between the United States and
achieve this goal the United States Russia on the Apollo-Soyuz mission.

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 During this manned lunar program, un- this to happen, rockets must become more cost
manned launch vehicles sent many satellites to effective and more reliable as a means of getting to
investigate our planet, forecast the weather, and space. Expensive hardware cannot be thrown away
communicate instantaneously around the world. In each time we go to space. It is necessary to con-
addition, scientists began to explore other planets. tinue the drive for more reusability started during the
Mariner 2 successfully flew by Venus in 1962, Space Shuttle program. Eventually NASA may
becoming the first probe to fly past another planet. develop aerospace planes that will take off from
The United State’s interplanetary space program runways, fly into orbit, and land on those same
then took off with an amazing string of successful runways, with operations similar to airplanes.
launches. The program has visited every planet To achieve this goal two programs are
except Pluto. currently under development. The X33 and X34
After the Apollo program the United States programs will develop reusable vehicles, which
began concentrating on the development of a significantly decrease the cost to orbit. The X33 will
reusable launch system, the Space Shuttle. Solid be a manned vehicle lifting about the same payload
rocket boosters and three main engines on the capacity as the Space Shuttle. The X34 will be a
orbiter launch the Space Shuttle. The reusable small, reusable unmanned launch vehicle capable
boosters jettison little more than 2 minutes into the of launching 905 kilograms to space and reduce the
flight, their fuel expended. Parachutes deploy to launch cost relative to current vehicles by two
decelerate the solid rocket boosters for a safe thirds.
splashdown in the Atlantic ocean, where two ships The first step towards building fully reusable
recover them. The orbiter and external tank vehicles has already occurred. A project called the
continue to ascend. When the main engines shut Delta Clipper is currently being tested. The Delta
down, the external tank jettisons from the orbiter, Clipper is a vertical takeoff and soft landing vehicle.
eventually disintegrating in the atmosphere. A brief It has demonstrated the ability to hover and maneu-
firing of the spacecraft’s two orbital maneuvering ver over Earth using the same hardware over and
system thrusters changes the trajectory to achieve over again. The program uses much existing
orbit at a range of 185-402 kilometers above Earth’s technology and minimizes the operating cost.
surface. The Space Shuttle orbiter can carry Reliable, inexpensive rockets are the key to en-
approximately 25,000 kilograms of payload into orbit abling humans to truly expand into space.
so crew members can conduct experiments in a
microgravity environment. The orbital
maneuvering system thrusters fire to slow
the spacecraft for reentry into Earth’s
atmosphere, heating up the orbiter’s
thermal protection shield up to 816°
Celsius. On the Shuttle’s final descent, it
returns to Earth gliding like an airplane.
Since the earliest days of discov-
ery and experimentation, rockets have
evolved from simple gunpowder devices
into giant vehicles capable of traveling
into outer space, taking astronauts to the
Moon, launching satellites to explore our
universe, and enabling us to conduct
scientific experiments aboard the Space
Shuttle. Without a doubt rockets have
opened the universe to direct exploration
by humankind. What role will rockets
play in our future?
The goal of the United States
space program is to expand our horizons Three reusable future space vehicles concepts under
in space, and then to open the space consideration by NASA.
frontier to international human expansion
and the commercial development. For

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Rockets: A Teacher's Guide with Activities in Science, Mathematics, and Technology EG-108 February 1996