GREAT INVENTIONS (ROCKETS)

For thousands of years, space travel was no more than an impossible dream. Only a very powerful engine could break the force of gravity and leave Earth behind. A thousand years ago, the rockets were just fireworks. Since then, scientists have found ways to launch rockets and guide them through space, which allowed knowing the Earth from another perspective and explore the wonderful Solar System.

The Chinese experimented with gunpowder since about 850. At first they used it in fireworks, but later they armed simple rockets. When exploding, the gunpowder produced a gas that came out of the back of the rockets and threw them into the air as if they were motorized arrows. Later, the Europeans used gunpowder to fire cannons.

The Space Age began in 1957, when the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite. At present there are hundreds of satellites in Space. They are used for various purposes, such as communications and weather forecasting.

During the 1930s, several German scientists developed the long-range missile rocket V2. This deadly missile was used to bomb London and other British cities in World War II. Then V2 technology was applied to develop a space program in the United States.

Almost all the primitive rockets were simple cylinders of varied materials, like metals, cardboard and wood. In 1926, the American scientist Robert Goddard launched the first rocket propelled to liquid fuels. He only flew two seconds and reached a height of 12 meters, but it was an important starting point for those times.