The name 'rocket' comes from the Italian rocchetta, meaning 'bobbin' or 'little spindle', given due to the similarity in shape to the bobbin or spool used to hold the thread from a spinning wheel. Konrad Kyeser described rockets in his military treatise Bellifortis around 1405. Between 12, the Liber Ignium gave instructions for constructing devices that are similar to firecrackers based on second hand accounts. In Europe, Roger Bacon mentioned firecrackers made in various parts of the world in the Opus Majus of 1267.

Between 12, Hasan al-Rammah wrote al-furusiyyah wa al-manasib al-harbiyya ( The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices), which included 107 gunpowder recipes, 22 of them for rockets. Medieval and early modern rockets were used militarily as incendiary weapons in sieges. This text mentions the first known multistage rocket, the 'fire-dragon issuing from the water' (Huo long chu shui), thought to have been used by the Chinese navy. Subsequently, rockets are included in the military treatise Huolongjing, also known as the Fire Drake Manual, written by the Chinese artillery officer Jiao Yu in the mid-14th century. Internal-combustion rocket propulsion is mentioned in a reference to 1264, recording that the 'ground-rat', a type of firework, had frightened the Empress-Mother Gongsheng at a feast held in her honor by her son the Emperor Lizong. According to Joseph Needham, the Song navy used rockets in a military exercise dated to 1245.

The Mongols adopted Chinese rocket technology and the invention spread via the Mongol invasions to the Middle East and to Europe in the mid-13th century. They also developed an early form of multiple rocket launcher during this time. In China, gunpowder-powered rockets evolved in medieval China under the Song dynasty by the 13th century. Historyįurther information: Timeline of rocket and missile technology Rocket arrows depicted in the Huolongjing: 'fire arrow', 'dragon-shaped arrow frame', and a 'complete fire arrow' However, careful design, testing, construction and use minimizes risks. Chemical rockets store a large amount of energy in an easily released form, and can be very dangerous. The stored propellant can be a simple pressurized gas or a single liquid fuel that disassociates in the presence of a catalyst ( monopropellant), two liquids that spontaneously react on contact ( hypergolic propellants), two liquids that must be ignited to react (like kerosene (RP1) and liquid oxygen, used in most liquid-propellant rockets), a solid combination of fuel with oxidizer ( solid fuel), or solid fuel with liquid or gaseous oxidizer ( hybrid propellant system). Rockets are now used for fireworks, missiles and other weaponry, ejection seats, launch vehicles for artificial satellites, human spaceflight, and space exploration.Ĭhemical rockets are the most common type of high power rocket, typically creating a high speed exhaust by the combustion of fuel with an oxidizer.

Significant scientific, interplanetary and industrial use did not occur until the 20th century, when rocketry was the enabling technology for the Space Age, including setting foot on the Moon. Rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th-century China. To control their flight, rockets rely on momentum, airfoils, auxiliary reaction engines, gimballed thrust, momentum wheels, deflection of the exhaust stream, propellant flow, spin, or gravity. Compared with airbreathing engines, rockets are lightweight and powerful and capable of generating large accelerations. Multistage rockets are capable of attaining escape velocity from Earth and therefore can achieve unlimited maximum altitude. Rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum and incur a loss of thrust due to the opposing pressure of the atmosphere. Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. For other uses, see Rocket (disambiguation).Ī Soyuz-FG rocket launches from ' Gagarin's Start' (Site 1/5), Baikonur CosmodromeĪ rocket (from Italian: rocchetto, lit.'bobbin/spool') is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air.

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