Introduction Space is not that far away It starts at 62 miles 100 km above the surface of Earth However fewer than 550 people have traveled into space and most have stayed close to our planet The fi rst humans fl ew into space in 1961 but the technology that got them there is hundreds of years old The First Spaceman A Chinese legend tells the story of Wan Hu who tied 47 large fi reworks to a chair in the 1500s He thought the rockets would power him into space He boarded his rocket ship lit the fuse and there was a big bang Wan Hu and the chair were never seen again Fireworks Spacecraft use rocket engines These can work in the emptiness of space unlike jet engines which need a supply of air to burn their fuel The fi rst rockets were fi reworks invented in China in the 800s They were powered by exploding gunpowder 4
A DIFFERENT VIEW SCIENCE FICTION Space travel was the subject of early science fiction books In 1869 American Edward Everett Hale’s book The Brick Moon told the story of people living inside a brick space station War Rockets For centuries Chinese armies used rockets as weapons These Chinese arrows were large fi reworks designed to set an enemy camp alight In the 1800s the British Royal Navy began fi ring long-range metal rockets right from ships These rockets were used to attack enemy ports 5
Blastoff In the early 1900s several inventors had a dream of exploring space aboard a rocket However the fi rst spacecraft had no crew They were fl ying bombs used during World War II 1939 1945 THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER where the fuels burned was at the base STEAM-POWERED PUMPS were used to mix the liquid fuels STEERING VANES changed the direction of the jet of gas coming out of the rocket Gunpowder rockets are not powerful enough to reach space In the 1920s and 1930s engineers developed more powerful rockets that used liquid fuels These rockets were fi rst used to power fi ghter aircraft and as long-range missiles V-2 Missile Germany’s V-2 rocket was designed to bomb targets 185 miles 300 km away and the fl ight path took it high enough to reach space A V-2 rocket fl ew into space for the fi rst time in 1944 TIMELINE 1903 Rocket Theory Konstantin Tsiolkovsky a Russian teacher right proposes using multistage rockets which fi re one after the other to fl y into space 6 WINGS kept the rocket fl ying straight without spinning 1926 Liquid Fuel U S engineer Robert Goddard launches the fi rst liquid-fueled rocket It is powered by a mixture of liquid oxygen and gasoline
THE UPPER FUEL TANK contained a mixture of alcohol and water RADIO RECEIVERS picked up guidance signals to keep the rocket on course LIQUID OXYGEN was stored in the lower tank THE WARHEAD was fi lled with high explosives so the rocket blew up on impact INSIDE OUT ROCKET ENGINES A rocket is powered by a controlled explosion produced by mixing a fuel and oxidant and setting them alight The fuels can be liquid or solid The advantage of liquids is that the supply can be turned on and off to control speed LIQUID-FUELED ROCKET Fuel SOLID-FUELED ROCKET Mixed fuel and oxidant Electric igniter starts rocket Oxidant Combustion chamber Blast of hot gas pushes rocket along Fuel burns in hollow center 1947 Flies in Space American scientists send fruit fl ies aboard a V-2 into space They are the fi rst living things in space and return to Earth unharmed by their journey 1949 Space Monkey Albert II a rhesus monkey fl ies to a height of 83 miles 134 km above Earth in a V-2 rocket launched from the United States However he dies in a crash landing 7
