HISTORY OF ROCKETS

400 B.C. = The Greeks were the first to employ the principles essential to rocket flight. Archytas used a pigeon made of wood, suspended on wires and propelled by steam, to fly.

100 B.C. = Hero of Alexandria invented the aeolipile. It used steam for thrust and caused the sphere on top of the water kettle to rotate.

www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/TRC/Rockets/history_of_rockets.html

1232 A.D.= The Chinese used a form of modern fireworks, an arrow filled with gunpowder for propellent to force the Mongols from their lands.

http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl1.html

16th Century = German fireworks maker Johann Schmidlap invented the "step rocket". A multi-staged transport system for providing higher altitudes for fireworks. A large rocket carrying a smaller rocket would ignite propelling the rocket into the atmosphere. When the large rocket burns out, the second, smaller rockets would ignite and continue its ascent. This idea is still used in todays outer space transport systems.

Late 17th Century = English scientist Sir Isaac Newton laid the foundation for modern rocketry by organizing his understanding of motion into three laws. These laws explain how rockets work and why they are able to work in space.

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html

18th & 19th Century = During this era, rockets were primarily used as a weapon of war. Colonel William Congreve set out to design rockets for use by the British military. They were used in the War of 1812 to pound Fort McHenry and were instrumental in inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "rockets with red glare" in a poem that eventually became the Star Spangled Banner.

Late 19th & Early 20th Century = Modern rocketry quickly developed and was pioneered by three men. These three men, known as the "Fathers of Modern Rocketry" were: Dr. Robert H. Goddard, an American; Hermann Oberth, a Romanian; and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian.