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History of rockets Origins  of  rocketry At the end of the 18th century, iron-cased rockets were successfully used militarily in The origin of rockets as most people think of India against the British by Tipu Sultan of them dates back over 2,000 years ago when the Kingdom of Mysore during the Anglo-Mysore people of the Han Dynasty in China (206 BC Wars. The British then took an active – 220 AD) began interest in the technology and developed it experimenting with gunpowder and fireworks. further during the 19th century. The major The explosive force of such pyrotechnics were figure in the field at this time was William eventually adapted for use in propelling Congreve. From there, the use of military projectiles such as cannon, musket balls and rockets spread throughout Europe. At the fire arrows. Without pyrotechnics, modern Battle of Baltimore in 1814, the rockets aviation and spaceflight would be fired on Fort McHenry by the rocket vessel impracticable; this is because pyrotechnic HMS Erebus were the source of the rockets' devices combine high reliabilty with very red glare described by Francis Scott Key in compact and efficient energy storage: The Star-Spangled Banner. Rockets were also essentially in the form of latent hot gases used  in  the  Battle  of  Waterloo. or as a shock wave as in bolt and cable cutters. Such projectiles do not contain Early rockets were very inaccurate. Without their own fuel, and thus do not meet the the use of spinning or any gimballing of the definition of a rocket. Therefore the use of thrust, they had a strong tendency to veer gunpowder to propel projectiles is a sharply off course. The early British precursor to the development of the first Congreve rockets reduced this somewhat by solid  rocket. attaching a long stick to the end of a rocket (similar to modern bottle rockets) to make it According to the writings of the Roman Aulus harder for the rocket to change course. The Gellius, in c. 400 BC, a Greek Pythagorean largest of the Congreve rockets was the named Archytas, propelled a wooden bird along 32-pound (14.5 kg) Carcass, which had a wires using steam. Likewise a similarity 15-foot (4.6 m) stick. Originally, sticks account had also contributed to Lu Ban. were mounted on the side, but this was later However, those rockets does not appear to changed to mounting in the center of the have been powerful enough for taking off rocket, reducing drag and enabling the rocket under its own thrust. The ancient Chinese to be more accurately fired from a segment of invention of gunpowder by Taoist alchemists pipe. with special circles, and their use of it in various forms of weapons like fire arrows, In 1815, Alexander Zasyadko began his work on bombs, and cannons resulted in the creating military gunpowder rockets. He development  of  the  rocket. constructed rocket-launching platforms, which allowed to fire in salvos (6 rockets at a Spread  of  rocket  technology time), and gun-laying devices. Zasyadko elaborated a tactics for military use of Rocket technology first became known to rocket weaponry. In 1820, Zasyadko was Europeans following their use by the Mongols appointed head of the Petersburg Armory, Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan when Okhtensky Powder Factory, pyrotechnic they conquered Russia, Eastern Europe, and laboratory and the first Highest Atillery parts of Central Europe, i.e., Austria. The School in Russia. He organized rocket Mongolians had stolen the Chinese technology production in a special rocket workshop and by conquest of the northern part of China and created the first rocket sub-unit in the also by the subsequent employment of Chinese Russian  army. rocketry experts as mercenaries for the Mongol military. Reports of the Battle of The accuracy problem was mostly solved in Sejo in the year 1241 describe the use of 1844 when William Hale modified the rocket rocket-like weapons by the Mongols against design so that thrust was slightly vectored the  Magyars. to cause the rocket to spin along its axis of travel like a bullet. The Hale rocket removed Additionally, the spread of rockets into the need for a rocket stick, travelled Europe was also influenced by the Ottomans at further due to reduced air resistance, and the siege of Constantinople in 1453, although was  far  more  accurate. it is very likely that the Ottomans themselves were influenced by the Mongol In 1903, high school mathematics teacher invasions of the previous few centuries. They Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) published appear in literature describing the capture (The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of of  Baghdad  in  1258  by  the  Mongols. Reaction Devices), the first serious scientific work on space travel. The For over two centuries, the work of Tsiolkovsky rocket Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth nobleman equation—the principle that Kazimierz Siemienowicz, "Artis Magnae governs rocket propulsion—is Artilleriae pars prima" ("Great Art of named in his honor. His work was essentially Artillery, the First Part". also known as unknown outside the Soviet Union, where it "The Complete Art of Artillery"), was used in inspired further research, experimentation, Europe as a basic artillery manual. The book and the formation of the Cosmonautics provided the standard designs for creating Society. His work was republished in the rockets, fireballs, and other pyrotechnic 1920s in response to Russian interest in the devices. It contained a large chapter on work of Robert Goddard. Among other ideas, caliber, construction, production and Tsiolkovsky accurately proposed to use liquid properties of rockets (for both military and oxygen and liquid hydrogen as a nearly civil purposes), including multi-stage optimal propellant pair and determined that rockets, batteries of rockets, and rockets building staged and clustered rockets to with delta wing stabilizers (instead of the increase the overall mass efficiency would common  guiding  rods). dramatically increase range 1 A B C D 66 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 97 98 99 100 101 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116