Rocket

Rocket, form of jet-propulsion engine in which the substances (fuel and oxidizer) needed to produce the propellant gas jet are carried internally. Working by reaction, and being independent of atmospheric oxygen, rockets are used to power interplanetary space vehicles. In addition to their chief use to power missiles, rockets are also used for supersonic and assisted-takeoff airplane propulsion, and sounding rockets are used for scientific investigation of the upper atmosphere. The first rockets—of the firework type, cardboard tubes containing gunpowder—were made in 13th-century China, and the idea quickly spread to the West. Their military use was limited, guns being superior, until military rockets were developed by Sir William Con-greve (1772–1828). The 20th century saw the introduction of new fuels and oxidants, e.g., a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin for solid-fuel rockets, or ethanol and liquid oxygen for the more efficient liquid-fuel rockets. The first liquid-fuel rocket was made by R.H. Goddard, who also invented the multistage rocket. In World War II Germany, and afterward in the U.S., Wernher von Braun made vast improvements in rocket design. Other propulsion methods, including the use of nuclear furnaces, electrically accelerated plasmas and ion propulsion, are being developed.