From the ancient Chinese legend of Wan Hu — who is said to have tied 47 rockets to a chair and attempted to ascend sky-bound in search of the unknown — to the novel The Man in the Moone, in which a man travels to the Moon aboard a device drawn by swans, one can clearly see humanity’s enduring desire to explore the skies.
Thus, the very first tool in human civilization capable of carrying humanity away from Earth — the rocket — was born.
There can be no thought of finishing, for ‘aiming at the stars’, both literally and figuratively, is a problem to occupy generations …
-Robert H. Goddard
What Rocket DOES
Human spacecraft
Rockets transport crewed spacecraft into orbit.
Artificial satellites
The primary and most frequent use of rockets is to send satellites into orbit.
Scientific payloads
Rockets provide the energy for spacecraft like Telescopes and Scientific Instruments to travel to Deep-Space
Commercial Uses
Rockets are now a major part of the commercial space sector known as Microgravity manufacturing, Mega-constellations like Starlink, Space tourism and etc.
KEY FIGURES
Yuri Gagarin
Many people think the first person in space was an American—Neil Armstrong—because he flew on Apollo 11 and became the first human to walk on the Moon. But if we’re talking about the first human in space, it was actually Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut. On April 12, 1961, he flew aboard Vostok 1 and became the first person to enter outer space and complete an orbit around the Earth.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935) was a pioneering Russian scientist and is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern astronautics and rocket science. Although he worked mostly alone in a small rural town, his theoretical work laid the foundation for space exploration long before it became technologically possible.
LATEST
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SpaceX launched its first Falcon 9 rocket of 2025 as it sent the Thuraya 4 communications satellite to orbit from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday (Jan. 3).
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Blue Origin is expected to launch its 1st New Glenn rocket next week
The first launch of New Glenn could occur between Jan. 6 and Jan. 12, according to the FAA.
January 2, 2025
SpaceX launches 1st Falcon 9 rocket of 2025
SpaceX successfully launched a miniature fleet of communications satellites into orbit in a vindication of sorts after a last-second abort delayed the flight.
December 29, 2024
India launches 2 SpaDeX satellites on ambitious space docking test for future moon ...
The SpaDeX mission will attempt India’s first-ever autonomous docking in space.
December 31, 2024
Blue Origin hot fires New Glenn rocket for first time and scores FAA license for test launch
Blue Origin fired up its new heavy-lift orbital rocket for the first time just hours after receiving federal clearance to conduct its maiden launch.
December 28, 2024
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