This site is part of the Science Museum's	STEM Project	and it was completed by a student of North London Collegiate School,	based on a visit to the 'Exploration of Space' Gallery, and called
			The Development of Space Travel and the First Moon Landing.

History of Space Travel.

As early as the 12^th century, rockets were already being put into use. The Chinese used black powder (gunpowder) rockets to fire at the enemy in battles, and to make fireworks and flame throwers.

History of gunpowder, the first rocket fuel

 Early in the 11^th century, it was discovered that when mixed, sulphur, saltpetre (potassium nitrate) and charcoal would incinerate very quickly. This mixture is known today as gunpowder. Nobody knows exactly who and where discovered it, but the earliest recipe for this concoction is from 1044 and is Chinese. Gunpowder was the first explosive and 'fuel'.

The recipe probably reached Europe around 1260, through routes, which linked it with Arabia and the East. The earliest European instruction for the making of the black powder was written in code (by a monk called Roger Bacon of Illchester), which suggests that the knowledge was considered harmful.

After rockets and gunpowder reached Europe, they were soon used in warfare near Venice towards the end of the century.

It was not until the 1900s, after William Hales invented the spin-stabilised rocket for a more accurate, straighter flight (1840s), that rocket invention really took off. In 1903, the Russian teacher-turned-rocket-designer, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, published his 'theory' on the idea that normal black powder would not be powerful enough to take rockets into space. Therefore, fuels such as liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen would be better power sources for space flight.

A model of Tsiolkovsky's manned rocket design

In 1926, the American rocket designer Robert Goddard launched the first successful liquid-fuel rocket, which flew 12.5m high. During the last two years of World War 2, the Germans bombed the Allies with their revolutionary V-2 rocket, which had a range of 300km.

The above are discoveries that really started off the era of 'firsts' in the 1960s: first man in space, first man on the Moon, etc. If you click on the link below, you will be able to see the main dates of space flight history, leading up to modern day.