History of rockets | Who built the first rocket?

Who invented the world's first rocket?

History of rockets | Who built the first rocket?

Who invented space rockets?

Chinese inventors made rockets possible when they invented gunpowder c.700–800CE; the first rockets were actually firework missiles used by the Chinese in 1232CE to defend the city of Kaifeng against a Mongolian invasion. Space rockets owe just as much to US physicist Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882–1945), “the father of modern rocketry,” who pioneered many rocket science techniques during the early 20th century. German scientists also played an important role, notably with a rocket-propelled missile called the V-2, which was used to devastating effect in World War II.


Intense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union saw the Russians putting Sputnik into space in 1957, but American astronauts were the first to land on the Moon in 1969, propelled by a Saturn-V rocket. Today, rockets are still the cheapest way of putting satellites into space. Over half of all commercial satellites are now launched from French Guiana by the European Ariane rocket.

How rockets work

It’s a common mistake to think that rockets work by “pushing back against the air”—and it’s easy to see that this is a mistake when you remember that there’s no air in space to push against. Space is literally that: empty space! How, then, do rockets work?

Like jet airplanes, space rockets work on a principle called action and reaction (another name for Newton’s third law of motion). The massive force (action) generated by hot gases firing backward from a rocket’s engines produces an equal force (reaction) that pushes the rocket forward through space. Most of the fuel on-board a rocket is used in the first few minutes of the mission to achieve an escape velocity of at least 25,000 mph (7 miles per second or 40,000 km/h)—the speed a rocket must theoretically attain to escape Earth’s gravity.

“Escape velocity” suggests a rocket must be going that fast at launch or it won’t escape from Earth, but that’s a little bit misleading, for several reasons. First, it would be more correct to refer to “escape speed,” since the direction of the rocket (which is what the word velocity really implies) isn’t all that relevant and will constantly change as the rocket curves up into space. (You can read more about the difference between speed and velocity in our article on motion). Second, escape velocity is really about energy, not velocity or speed.

To escape from Earth, a rocket must do work against the force of gravity as it travels over a distance. When we say a rocket has escape velocity, we really mean it has at least enough kinetic energy to escape the pull of Earth’s gravity completely. Finally, a rocket doesn’t get all its kinetic energy in one big dollop at the start of its voyage: it gets further injections of energy by burning fuel as it goes. Quibbles aside, “escape velocity” is a quick and easy shorthand that helps us understand one basic point: a huge amount of energy is needed to get anything up into space. (You can read a much more detailed explanation in the Wikipedia article on escape velocity.)

How rocket engines work

A rocket engine is a type of jet engine that uses only stored rocket propellant mass for forming its high speed propulsive jet. Rocket engines are reaction engines, obtaining thrust in accordance with Newton’s third law. Most rocket engines are internal combustion engines, although non-combusting forms also exist. Vehicles propelled by rocket engines are commonly called rockets. Since they need no external material to form their jet, rocket engines can perform in a vacuum and thus can be used to propel spacecraft and ballistic missiles.

Rocket engines as a group have the highest thrust, are by far the lightest, but are the least propellant efficient (have the lowest specific impulse) of all types of jet engines. The ideal exhaust is hydrogen, the lightest of all gases, but chemical rockets produce a mix of heavier species, reducing the exhaust velocity. Rocket engines become more efficient at high velocities (due to greater propulsive efficiency and Oberth effect). Since they do not benefit from, or use, air, they are well suited for uses in space and the high atmosphere.

Rocket engines produce thrust by the expulsion of exhaust which has been accelerated to a high-speed.
The exhaust must be a fluid, usually a gas created by high pressure (10-200 bar) combustion of solid or liquid propellants, consisting of fuel and oxidiser components, within a combustion chamber. (An exception is water rockets, which use water pressurised by compressed air, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or manual pumping.)

The exhaust then passes through a supersonic propelling nozzle that uses the heat energy of the gas to accelerate the exhaust to a very high speed and its reaction pushes the engine in reverse.
In rocket engines, higher temperatures and pressures are highly desirable for better performance because it allows the engine to have a longer nozzle, which gives higher exhaust velocities, as well as better thermodynamic efficiency.

Like the gunpowder missiles of ancient China, solid-fuel rocket engines are little more than giant fireworks. Although they are very powerful, they cannot be turned off or controlled in any way, so they are usually only used during lift off. An example of a rocket that works this way is the solid-rocket boosters (SRBs) used in spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle.

Unlike airplane jet engines, which take in air as they fly through space, space rockets have to carry their own oxygen supply (oxidizer) with them because there is no air in space. Liquid-fuel engines pump liquid hydrogen (fuel) and liquid oxygen (oxidizer) into a combustion chamber at the bottom of the rocket, burn the mixture (called propellant, because it propels the rocket), and allow heating. A jet ejects the product to avoid punching through the nozzle.

Oxygen and hydrogen burn at very high temperatures, making the engine more efficient and powerful. However, before combustion, both substances are stored at extremely low temperatures to keep them liquid. This ensures that more fuel can be saved than if gas were used. The lower temperature cools the nozzle to protect against heat generated during lifting. Unlike solid-fuel engines, liquid-fuel engines can be turned on and off during flight using valves.

How a space rocket works:

Liquid hydrogen (fuel) from one tank is mixed with liquid oxygen (oxidizer) from a separate tank using pumps and valves to control flow. The oxidizer and fuel are mixed and burned in the combustion chamber, creating a hot blast of exhaust gas that propels the rocket. The payload (cargo—such as a satellite) occupies a relatively small proportion of the rocket's total volume at the top of the nose-cone.

A Simple Rocket: Center of the Atlas

The Atlas produced by the Lockheed Martin Company is one of the most successful space rockets ever built. Atlas rockets have launched more than 100 unmanned space missions, including voyages to the Moon, pioneering missions to Jupiter and Venus, and the Voyager space probe that landed on Mars. On June 11, 1957, NASA's first Atlas rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The latest version, the Atlas V, has been in use as a launch vehicle for government and commercial satellites since late 2001 and is expected to be in use at least through 2020.

One version of the Atlas, called the Atlas Center Rocket, explains the basic concepts of how a rocket works very well. It is called an Atlas Center because the lower layer called the Atlas (a part of the rocket used for flight) is attached to an upper layer called the Center. The rocket's payload (cargo), usually a spacecraft or satellite, rides on top of Centaur's stage and is protected from heat and vibration by a nose cone known as the payload fairing.

How Atlas launches a satellite

The Atlas and Centaur stages power the rocket through various points in its mission. The massive Atlas stage helps the rocket escape Earth's gravity and propels it into orbit. Next, the small Centaur stage detaches the payload and places the satellite in orbit before returning to Earth.

Liftoff: The Atlas stage powers the rocket with a two-chamber booster engine (active only during liftoff), a sustain engine (active from liftoff until all fuel is exhausted), and four solid rocket boosters (SRBs). The Atlas stage holds 343,000 pounds (156,000 kg) of liquid fuel.

SRBs Jettisoned: Solid rocket boosters are used to increase thrust during the first two minutes of flight and are jettisoned when their fuel supply is exhausted.

Booster Engine Jettisoned: The booster engine is cut off and jettisoned by releasing the 10 pneumatic (air-operated) latches.
Payload Fairing Jettisoned: Spring-driven thrusters jettison the protective payload fairing after the rocket clears Earth's atmosphere.

Atlas and Centaur separate: As the rocket approaches its orbit, the Atlas and Centaur stages separate and the Atlas stage jettisons.
Centaur goes into orbit: Centaur's twin engines give it the altitude and velocity it needs to launch satellites.
Satellite Launch: The center is separate from the satellite. The satellite continues in orbit, while the hub is positioned to return to Earth

Space Shuttle: The Rocket is Coming Back!

The development of NASA's reusable space-plane, the Space Shuttle, ushered in a whole new era of space exploration. Previous spacecraft lasted only one mission, but the shuttle, which took off like a rocket and returned like an airplane, could be reused up to 100 times. Between its first flight in 1981 and its final journey in 2011, the shuttle flew 135 missions, successfully launched and repaired numerous satellites and the Hubble Space Telescope, and played a major role in assembling the International Space Station. Now that it has retired, we bid it a very fond farewell.
So long spacecraft!

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