While rocket technology can date back as far as the first century bc when the hero of alexandria
invented a device that could generate thrust from boiling water the real history of rocket
technology starts in the second world war the v1 and v2 rockets deployed by the germans could
travel more than 30 kilometers and average speeds more than 5500 kilometers an hour that's about
the same speed as modern-day cruise missiles but after the end of the war the us and ussr quickly
snatched up most of germany's rocket scientists people like werner von braun for the americans
and eric able for the soviets from there both sides rushed to produce ever more powerful rockets
within days of the german surrendering the americans started project nike they would develop
the us's first anti-aircraft missile system and you can clearly see the inspirations from the v2
the americans basically said copy paste and threw on some fins and an american flag
the rest of the 40s saw some minor rocketry improvements with chuck yeager becoming the
first man to go supersonic inside the bell x1 rocket-powered aircraft but the real action
started in the 50s and 60s where both sides pumped out dozens of increasingly complex rockets
in a rapid fashion in 1956 the us developed the first ballistic missile the pgm-17 launching
from cape canaveral it could travel up to 2 400 kilometers or about as far as minneapolis
not anywhere near far enough for practical use the next year the russians put one over
on the americans launching the first ever intercontinental ballistic missile
the r7 capable of delivering a payload to target up to 9 000 kilometers away from its launch pad
in modern day kazakhstan that put all of europe under threat and even the closest u.s states like
maine and new hampshire just barely in reach the soviets could now launch an attack on u.s soil
from the other side of the planet and with its max speed at mach 20 that means it could traverse the
globe in just under 30 minutes faster than most pizza places can get across town that
same year the launch of sputnik 1 would further cement the soviet's dominance in the space race
but not too far behind three months later in 1958 the americans would do the same with explorer one
the sixties saw rocket technology progress just as fast but now the goal was getting people into
space 1961 yuri gagarigan became the first man to orbit the earth 1962 an atlas d booster puts
american john glenn into orbit 1963 valentina tereshkova becomes the first woman and the
first civilian to orbit the earth remaining in orbit for nearly three days 1963-1966 saw the
development of the x-15 the first reusable manned spacecraft the ussr proton rocket the fr diomal
the first french and european rocket to reach orbit the first successful lunar landing and the
first launch of the soyuz spacecraft this still remains in service today more than 50 years later
i believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out
of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth
in 1969 although kennedy wouldn't be alive to see it astronauts aboard the apollo 11 spacecraft
were the first to touch down on the surface of the moon 1981 would see the launch of the first space
shuttle and in 1988 the us's deep space 1 would be the first deep space mission to use an ion
thruster for propulsion these are the engines used today on elon musk's starling satellites
and the hayabusa spacecraft that return samples from an asteroid 2 billion kilometers from earth
the day after christmas 1991 the soviet union would collapse but this left soviet cosmonaut
sergey krikalev stranded on the mirror russia's space station not only was he suddenly stateless
but with both his launch site and landing area located in the newly independent kazakhstan
there was a lot of uncertainty about the fate of his mission with the country that had sent
him to space no longer existing his return was delayed by more than 5 months he's basically
the real life matt damon just a little closer to home the 2000s with the threat of the cold war
no longer hanging over rocket scientists became the millennial of commercial space travel in 2001
american multi-millionaire dennis tito became the first space tourist coughing up 20 million
dollars to hitch a ride to the iss and from 2008 to 2014 we saw spacex launch the falcon 1
carry astronauts to the iss and successfully land the first ever reusable rocket booster
add in a few more advancements and new zealand launching its first ever rocket orbit in 2018
and that's the history of rocket technology all in under five minutes
let us know what other topics you want to see explained in under five minutes
down in the comments and remember there is always more to learn