Today’s rockets are very cool, you might even say remarkable. NASA’s Space Shuttle and the Soviet Union’s Buran (shuttle) are among the most complex rockets ever invented. Soon the European Space Agency and Japan will also have rockets like these to launch. There have been thousands of years of experiments and research to get our rockets to where they are today.

Around the year 400 BC, a Greek named Archytas made a wood pigeon and flew it around. The bird hung from wires and was pushed along by steam. The pigeon used the action-reaction principle that was not to be a scientific law until the 17^th century.  [See Newton’s Third Law of Motion]

Just when an actual flying rocket first developed is unclear. The very first rockets were probably made by accident. In the first century AD, the Chinese made a simple form of gunpowder and used it mostly for fireworks in religious and festive celebrations. Bamboo tubes were filled with the gunpowder mixture and tossed into the fires. Some of those tubes failed to explode and instead flew out of the fires from the gases and sparks produced by the burning gunpowder.

The Chinese began to experiment with these bamboo tubes. They would attach these tubes to arrows and launch them with bows. It was discovered that these tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced by the escaping gases. Thus the true rocket was born!

In 1232, the Chinese and the Mongols were at war with each other. The Chinese decided to use their new invention to help in fighting the Mongols. With the tube and the homemade gunpowder, it was quite a useful weapon. When the powder was lit it made a tremendous fire, and smoke and gas escaped out of the open end of the tube. The stick was used like a guide to aim the rocket in the direction of the Mongols. The rockets were successful, and the Mongols decided to experiment with their own rockets.

A Chinese official named Wan-Hu made a rocket-powered flying chair. Attached to the chair were two large kites, and fixed to the kites were 47 rockets. At the command of Wan-Hu, 47 men lit the rockets. Suddenly there was a loud roar with many clouds of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Wan-Hu had disappeared along with his chair. He was probably blown to pieces because the rockets were as likely to explode as they were to fly!

From the 13^th through the 15^th centuries, there were many similar reports of experimental rockets. In England, Roger Bacon worked on improving gunpowder. In France, Jean Frossart found that more accurate flights by rockets were made through tubes. This idea was used to help make the modern bazooka.

In the 16^th century, Johann Schmidlap of Germany invented the "step rocket," where a large rocket carried a smaller rocket until the large rocket burned out. The smaller one then continued to a higher altitude. This is the basic idea behind how rockets go up into space today.

In the 17^th century, an English scientist, Sir Issac Newton wrote the scientific laws called Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. This explained how rockets work and are able to work in outer space.

Colonel William Congreve set out to design rockets for the British military. These rockets were quite successful in the War of 1812. These rockets gave Francis Scott Key the idea to write the words to "The Star Spangled Banner" with "the rockets’ red glare".

In 1898, it was suggested that a rocket should be used to explore space. In the 20^th century, an American, Robert H. Goddard, became interested in finding a way of reaching higher altitudes in the sky. He said that rockets were the answer to reaching high altitudes to escape the Earth’s gravity. Goddard’s first successful flight was with a liquid-propelled rocket in 1926. Goddard has been called the father of modern rocketry.

A V-2 rocket was made in Germany with liquid oxygen and alcohol. During World War II, V-2 rockets wiped out whole city blocks in just seconds. When Germany was defeated, many rockets and missiles were captured and brought to the United States and the Soviet Union for scientists to study.

The Soviet Union first launched a space satellite in 1957. On January 31, 1958, the United States launched its own satellite. In October of that year the United States formed a program called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After that, many people and machines were being launched into space. Satellites helped scientists to explore space and our world, forecast the weather, and communicate instantly around the world, just like the Internet.

At this time, there are 18 nations that have rockets capable of orbiting around the Earth. The United States and Russia have launched men into space. Japan, China, and 13 other nations hope to orbit astronauts before the year 2005.