Brief history of rockets – timeline
This timeline looks at some of the historical aspects of rockets – taking science and technology to new heights.
1232 – Chinese fire arrows
The first true rocket is invented by the Chinese. Fire arrows are used against the Mongol invaders.
1591 – First multi-staged rocket
German fireworks maker Johann Schmidlap invents the two-stage rocket to reach higher altitudes. A large skyrocket (first stage) carries a smaller rocket (second stage).
1687 – Newton’s laws of motion published
Sir Isaac Newton publishes his book Principia, which contains his three laws of motion and lays the scientific foundations for modern rocketry.
Statue of Sir Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1726) entered Cambridge University in 1661. He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1667 and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669. He remained at the university, lecturing in most years, until 1696.
1792 and 1799 – Rocket revival
Indian rockets used against the British catch the attention of Colonel William Congreve. Rockets are subsequently designed for military use by the British military.
1844 – Spin stabilisation invented
Jet vents are designed on an angle, making the rocket spin, much like a bullet, making them more stable and accurate.
1898 – Space exploration proposed
Russian schoolteacher Konstantin Tsiokovsky puts forward the idea of using rockets for space exploration. He suggests liquid propellants would gain greater range.
1926 – Successful liquid-propellant rocket
In March 1926 American Robert H Goddard flies a rocket powered by liquid oxygen and gasoline. Goddard goes on to build bigger rockets and higher rockets.
1929 – First manned rocket flight
Fritz von Opel became the first person to fly a rocket-propelled plane in Germany – the Opel RAK.1.
1942 – V-2 rockets
Ballistic missiles are developed by German engineers led by Wernher Von Braun during the Second World War. They burn a mixture of oxygen and alcohol at a rate of 1 ton every 7 seconds. This is the first rocket capable of reaching space.
V-2 rocket launch
A German V-2 launched from a fixed site in 1943.
1946 – First atmospheric testing
With the help of captured German rocket engineers, the United States begins using V-2 rockets as sounding rockets to make measurements of the atmosphere at high altitudes. Little was known of the atmosphere before this.
1950s – Intercontinental ballistic missiles
A variety of medium and long-range missiles are developed and become the starting point of the US space programme. Missiles like Redstone, Atlas and Titan would eventually launch astronauts into space.
4 October 1957 – First satellite – Sputnik 1
The Soviet Union launches the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. This marks the first significant success of the space race between the world’s two superpowers.
January 1958 – First American satellite launches
Jet Propulsion Laboratories launch Explorer 1, America’s first satellite. New Zealander Sir William Pickering is director of JPL.
October 1958 – NASA founded
The United States formally organises its space programme and calls it National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
January 1959 – Russian Luna 1 probe to Moon
Successful launch of Luna 1 by the Russians, which sees the rocket fly past the moon.
February 1959 – First weather satellite launched
The Vanguard 2 satellite is used by scientists to forecast the weather.
April 1961 – First man to orbit Earth
Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to orbit Earth.
February 1962 – First American to orbit Earth
John Glenn orbits earth in a capsule packed with so much equipment there is sitting room only.
July 1962 – Mariner probes to Venus
The first successful interplanetary probes are launched. Two Mariner probes travel to Venus.
Mariner 2 spacecraft model
In 1963 Sir William Pickering (center), Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director, presented a Mariner 2 spacecraft model to President John F Kennedy. In 1962 this American space probe to Venus was the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter.
1961 to 1966 – Ranger series
Series of nine probes sent to the Moon to take photos of the lunar surface in preparation for a Moon landing.
1969 – Moon landing
Apollo 11 is the first space flight to land people on the Moon. Neil Armstrong is the first astronaut to set foot on the Moon. Twelve astronauts walk on the Moon during 6 missions. Ed Cernan is the last man to step foot on the Moon in 1972.
Apollo 11
Lift-off of the Apollo 11 on 16 July 1969. The 110 metre high Saturn V rocket carries three astronauts towards the Moon.
April 1981 – First Space Shuttle launch
NASA launches its first Space Shuttle. These are designed as reusable vehicles that would increase accessibility to orbit. Space Shuttles have been used to place many satellites into orbit and to construct the International Space Station. The final space shuttle was launched in July 2011.
10 Dec 2010 – First private launch into Earth orbit
SpaceX, a private company working towards commercial space travel, launches Falcon 9. This unmanned capsule orbits the Earth twice before landing in the Pacific Ocean.
5 August 2011 – Juno launches to Jupiter
Juno is launched to begin its 5-year journey to Jupiter. It arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 2016 and has been beaming back data and onservations since then.
Juno launch
This Atlas V rocket carried the Juno spacecraft in the top payload section. Liftoff was on 5 August 2011. It took 5 years to travel the 2,800 million kilometres to reach Jupiter.
Beyond 2000 – On-going space exploration
Countries and organisations continue to send probes and make plans to send people to the Moon, Mars and beyond. These include Japan, the European Space Agency, India, China, Russia and the USA.
2012 onwards – Private companies
Private companies, such as Space X, Orbital ATK, Virgin Galactic and New Zealand company Rocket Lab, are increasingly active in the space industry.
New Zealand’s place in space
Mark Rocket, a space enthusiast, was an early seed investor in Rocket Lab. Mark describes New Zealand’s proud past contribution to space exploration through Sir William Pickering. Peter Beck, founder and technical director of Rocket Lab describes how he first formed Rocket Lab in 2006. Mark and Peter's belief that New Zealand has a great potential to contribute to this high-tech industry has been born out with the achievements of Rocket Lab in later years.
25 May 2017 – World's first private orbital launch site in NZ
Rocket Lab launchs their Electron rocket from their Māhia Peninsula based orbital launch site, in New Zealand. Rocket Lab is only the 3rd private company in the world to launch a rocket into space and their Mahia facility is the world's first private orbital launch site.
Lift off at Māhia!
The first Electron rocket launch test, called ‘It’s a test’, blasts off into space on 25 May 2017. The launch made New Zealand the 11th nation to launch a satellite.
11 November 2018 – First commercial rocket launch from New Zealand
Rocket Lab achieves their first commercial deployment from Mahia. 'It's Business Time', took off at 4.50pm on Sunday 11 November. It lifted 6 satellites and a technology demonstrator into low Earth orbit.
30 May 2020 – First launch of a private crewed flight
Private company Space X, in partnership with NASA, launches a 2-person crewed spacecraft, Dragon 2 to the International Space Station (ISS).
SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft
In May 2020 two astronauts from NASA's Commercial Crew Program, were aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon when it completed it's first docking at the International Space Station. The Space X Dragon 2 are a class of partially reusable spacecraft and this image shows Crew Dragon Endeavour approaching the International Space Station.
9 February 2021 – Middle East enters the Martian space race
The United Arab Emirates Space Agency's Hope orbiter reaches Mars orbit in February and begins collecting data with the goal of getting a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere and its layers.
19 February 2021 – NASA lands another rocket on Mars
The Nasa rover Perseverance lands on Mars as part of an epic quest to bring back rocks that could tell whether life ever existed on the red planet.
14 May 2021 – Chinese rover lands on Mars
China National Space Administration successfully landed the rover Zhurong on Mars, making China the second nation to land on Mars, after the USA.
11 July 2021 – Virgin Galatic space flight
Billionaire Sir Richard Branson and his crew successfully reach the edge of space on board the Virgin Galactic rocket plane – becoming the first of the new space tourism pioneers to try out their own vehicles.
SpaceShipTwo
SpaceShipTwo is a winged plane with a single rocket motor developed by Virgin Galactic. The plane is attached to the underside of a twin-fuselage mothership known as WhiteKnightTwo. Once released, the space plane accelerates rapidly – with up to three Gs of force.
On 11 July 2021, the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity made a successful, crewed suborbital flight to 86 km above the Earth before making a runway landing.
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