Typical of so much of the technology of the time, rocketry required an extensive period of trial and error to transform theoretical constructs into workable missiles. Institutional funding, experimental acumen, devotion, and patience combined to transform the dreams of rocket flight into reality in just one generation.
Three men hold a prominent place in the history of rocket technology: Russian engineer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), American physicist Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), and German researcher and instructor Hermann Oberth (1894-1989). The Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky was the first person to translate Newton's law of action-reaction into a theoretical analysis of rocket motion. (English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton [1642-1727] proposed three basic laws of motion, the third of which is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.) Tsiolkovsky also was the first to propose liquid fuels and to devise a multi-stage design to provide travel beyond Earth's atmosphere. Although Tsiolkovsky is considered the father of rocketry by Russians, little of his extensive work was known outside of the Soviet Union, and his failure to perform experimental work limited the impact of his pioneering analyses.
Likewise, the extensive theoretical and experimental work of American physicist Robert Goddard had limited influence.
This is a free page. This page contains 185 words. This
article contains 1,717 words (approx. 6 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Rocketing Into Space: the Beginnings of the Space Age Access Pass.
