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Chinese firecrackers
the first rocket propellers made were Chinese fireworks in 1232 AD. -
Mongol Rockets
13th to the 15th centuries. Mongols produced rockets of their own and may have been responsible for the spread of rockets to Europe. -
Step Rocket
By the 16th century rockets fell into a time of disuse as weapons of war, though they were still used for fireworks displays, and a German fireworks maker, Johann Schmidlap, invented the "step rocket," a multi-staged vehicle for lifting fireworks to higher altitudes -
Congreve rockets
William Congreve made it. Used by British ships to pound Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. 1792 -
solid-propellant rockets
Goddard built it in 1915. His rockets became bigger and flew higher. He developed a gyroscope system for flight control and a payload compartment for scientific instruments. -
Sputnic
The satellite was the first successful entry in a race for space between the two superpower nations, built in 1957 -
Explorer I
A few months after the first Sputnik, the United States followed the Soviet Union with a satellite of its own in 1958. -
Apollo moon rocket
1970's. Standing as high as a skyscraper, the vehicle literally made the ground shake underfoot when the engines were ignited for liftoff -
Skylab
Rockets have been used to launch many post-Apollo piloted missions, including Skylab, and the many STS missions. 21st century -
unpiloted military satellites
Rockets have also launched unpiloted military satellites, communications' satellites, weather satellites, Earth observing satellites, planetary spacecraft, planetary surface rovers, the Hubble Space Telescope, and so on. 21st century
