Today, the word ‘rocket’ is used in many forms. Missiles used in wars are also a form of rockets. The space-ships used to collect information about planets and their satellites are also called rockets. We hear of rockets in fire-works also. Whatever be the context in which the word rocket is used, one thing is certain that all the rockets function on the same principle. A rocket works according to the Newton’s third law of motion. According to this law, ‘to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’. The gases formed by the burning of fuels inside the rocket chamber come out of the nozzle and produce a great force. As a reaction to this, the rocket gets the necessary push to move forward. Do you know how the rocket was developed?

              The story of the development of the rocket starts with China. It was not invented by any single scientist. Its development took a very long time. In the year 1232, the Chinese used the arrows of flying fire in the wars against the Mongols. These arrows were also a kind of rockets. By 1275, rockets came to be in use in India, England, Arabian countries, Germany and France etc. During the early 1800s, Colonel William Congreve of the British Army developed rockets which were used in every war thereafter. In 1926 Robert H. Goddard of America developed liquid propelled rockets. Goddard today is known as “The Father of Modern Rocketry”.

               High speed rockets were developed for space explorations. The space Age began on October 4, 1957 when Russia launched the first satellite, Sputnik I. Today we have solid and liquid propellant rockets, electric and nuclear rockets. For space applications, scientists are using multistage rockets.