The Space Age and Modern Rocketry

            With the end of Nazi Germany, many of the German engineers and scientists, including Von Braun, went to either the US or the Soviet Union. At first, the US began with a program that involved the development of high-altitude atmospheric sounding rockets, which was one of Goddard’s early ideas. Later, the US worked on medium and long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). These are known as the starting point of the United States space program. It is with these ideas that the Redstone Atlas and the Titan would later emerge and later send astronauts into space. 

     On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite ever to successfully enter space. With this achievement, the US and the Soviet Union started the “Space Race”. A month after Sputnik was launched, the Soviets fired a satellite that carried a dog named Laika.  Laika had survived seven days in space before being put to sleep because of low oxygen supply. A few months after Sputnik was launched, the U.S. Army launched the Explorer I on January 31, 1958. In that same year in October, the US had formally established the National Aeronautics and Space Organization (NASA). This is a civilian agency with the goal of peaceful space exploration. It is still in existence today.

            With these great achievements, men and machines were being sent into space, onto the moon, and satellites were being launched into the far reaches of space. Satellites today can transfer information in a heartbeat, tell us about the weather, and give us detailed photos from over 50 miles up in the sky. Another achievement is the advancement of military and civilian rockets. As the demand for larger payloads augmented, more versatile and powerful rockets were built.

            Today, space exploration is still an essential part of our lives. We gather intelligence about Earth everyday, as well as other planets and galaxies. It is only a matter of time until we settle on other planets, both in the Milky Way and additional, distant galaxies, all with the fascination of the rocket, which was started over 2000 years ago.

Sources:

Rockets: History & Theory. 28 Mar. 2003 http://www.wsmr.army.mil/paopage/Pages/rkhist.htm.

Hamilton, Calvin J. 'A Brief History of Rocketry'. 2001. 27 Mar. 2003 http://www.solarviews.com/eng/rocket.htm