Hello World
Whenever I look at the sky I always wonder if one day I would travel beyond it into space. How would I feel and How Earth would look like from space.
Yes, nowadays we can easily tune to NASA and see incredible footages took by satellites yet watching it with your own eyes is something different.
Today we know something about space, that too because of the Principles of Rocketry, which was first tested more than 2000 years ago. It took more than 2000 years of development in this field of rocketry (Rocket Science) to achieve this, what we are seeing right now. Yet this not the end but the beginning of a new era.
Many Historians believe that the Chinese developed the first real rocket around the 1st century AD which is very much similar to modern fireworks. For many years rockets were used as military weapons. In the early 1800s, the British military developed a rocket as a weapon named as Congreve rocket.
From Fireworks to Military Weapons to Space Explorations, Rockets has a long journey in Human history.
Did that Chinese inventor ever imagine space exploration? What do you think? What made him invent the first real rocket?
We all know "Necessity is the Mother of Invention", So which necessity made him invent the first rocket?
To amaze people with a firework show in the sky? Did he ever imagine that one day humans would use it as a weapon for mass destruction?
I don't know what he imagined about the future of its invention but It gave wings to the imaginations of Human Exploration and I am really happy that he took the initiative for the first step to change the world.
The use of rocket in space exploration was not that easy but thanks to the competitive nature of Humans which made it possible, After World War-II Soviet Union and the United States choose a new field to fight and showcase their power i.e. Space
When Rocket engineering was in its infancy, numerous flights ended with the rockets dramatically exploding seconds after leaving the launchpad. At that time computers were not so powerful to perform simulations which results in so many failed attempts. Humans knew how rockets work within the atmosphere but sending them in space was difficult, yet this competitive nature made them achieve the first success after so many failed attempts.
Oct. 4, 1957: The Soviet Union successfully launched its first space mission "Sputnik" and It didn't take much time for the US to get their first success
On Feb. 1, 1958, successfully heft its first Explorer-1 satellite in space using Jupiter-C Rocket.
Congrats World, Humans achieved a milestone in space exploration. It gave wings to the imaginations of many Future Explorers who now truly believe that one day they'll explore space for humanity. The fight between the two countries made it possible, it was a creation in the depth of destruction.
There was still a long way to go, we humans always wanted to explore space with our own eyes and at that time it was near to impossible, our technology was not that advance that's why scientists were not confident enough to send humans into space so they decided to send monkeys and dogs for a successful trial testing. After so many testings the day arrived when we achieved our next milestone
On April 12, 1961: Yuri Gagarin(Russian Cosmonaut) was the first human in space, leaving Earth aboard a Vostok-K rocket for a multi-orbit flight.
About just three weeks later on a Redstone rocket Alan Shepard made the first American suborbital flight, Yet this was not enough for Americans as they were still lagging behind the Russians.
A Few years later NASA switched to Atlas Rockets to achieve orbit in NASA's Mercury Program and finally, in 1963 John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth.
These two missions wrote a golden history in human space exploration, Now their next target was the moon and it was not that easy. Everything, Every animal on earth have to break the pull (gravitational force) of mother earth to explore space. Just like every mother, Mother Earth also didn't want their children to explore this cruel space where there is no life. In order to break this pull, humans needed to find a way. A powerful rocket that could escape the gravitational pull and finally NASA got the answer, its Saturn V Rocket a three-staged and 363 feet tall Rocket which was powerful enough to break the earth gravity. In between 1969 and 1972 Saturn V rocket successfully launched six moon-landing missions.
Whereas the Soviet Union also developed its moon rocket named N1 but its program get permanently suspended after a deadly explosion.
Nasa founded a way to break the gravity yet the technology needed some more discovery. Liquid Fuel was not enough to generate the desired power and finally, they came up with Solid fuel.
During the period of 1981-2011, NASA's space shuttle program used solid rockets for the first time to boost humans into space.
The shuttle itself had three liquid-fueled engines, with two solid rocket boosters strapped on the sides. In 1986, a solid rocket booster's O-ring failed and caused a catastrophic explosion, killing seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger. The solid rocket boosters were redesigned after the incident.
These bad incidents make us feel think again about our technological advancements which have yet more to achieve.
Several companies in many countries now manufacture uncrewed rockets — the United States, India, Europe and Russia etc and routinely send military and civilian payloads into space.
Falcon 9 rocket is an example of today's technological achievement which is just a step forward for the main objective of our human civilisation i.e. to explore space with our own eyes.
P.S- I didn't mention many projects in between like Project Apollo, Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, Chandrayan etc. because I want you to be a part of this post. Please feel free to comment on anything about Rockets, I would love to read your comments.
Referrences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_China
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/explorer-overview.html
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-was-the-saturn-v-58.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster
