Big Ideas That Changed the World No. 1: Rocket to the Moon!
That definitely didn’t go as planned I bet I’m the first guy to try flying in a rocket OK OK there’s a sketchy story about a Turkish guy who did it in 1633 but come on 1633 I’m not buying it so I’m claiming the title 6
Anyway I wasn’t the last About a half century later people started to get the hang of rocket riding and in 1969 three Americans rode a rocket all the way to the surface of the moon and back That moon landing story is the reason for this book and I figure I’m the best one to tell it It’s not entirely clear when and how the first rockets were invented About the first century the Chinese invented gunpowder They eventually had the idea to load it into bamboo tubes close one end attach them to sticks and then light the gunpowder Away they flew Yeah it kinda resembles my skyrocket 7
The rocket idea spread By the fifteenth century the English and French were using rockets as weapons and fireworks In the sixteenth century a German fireworks maker named Johann Schmidlap rhymes with Fmidlap Mon Dieu had an idea to make a two-stage rocket The bottom stage or part fired until it ran out of fuel and fell away Then the second stage fired sending the rocket even higher 8
The British had the idea to bombard America’s Fort McHenry with rockets during the War of 1812 giving Francis Scott Key the chance to add the rockets red glare to the American national anthem And the rockets red shine flash spark glare That’s it glare 9
