Home > Timeline of rocket and missile technology

• 1903 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky begins a series of papers discussing the use of rocketry to reach outer space, space suits, and colonization of the solar system. Two key points discussed in his works are liquid fuels and staging.
• 1926 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fuel rocket.
• 1942 - Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger launch the first V2 rocket at PeenemündePeenemunde is a village in the northwest of the German island of Usedom on the Peene river, on the easternmost part of the German Baltic coast. Rocket facility During World War II, Peenemunde was the location of the Heeresversuchsanstalt an extensive rock in northern Germany.
• 19491949 is the common year starting on Saturday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 4 RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage January 4 February 22 Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, - Willy LeyWilly Ley ( October 2 1906 June 24 1969) was a science writer and space advocate who helped popularise rocketry and spaceflight in Germany and the United States in the early-mid twentieth century. Ley was born in Berlin and studied to become a paleontolog publishes The Conquest of Space
• 1952Summary of notable events in 1952 . Events January events January 8 West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders. January 24 Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria. January 24 Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada. - Wernher von Braun discusses the technical details of a manned exploration of MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, both small and odd in The Mars Project.
• 19531953 is a common year starting on Thursday (click on link for the calendar). Events January events January 7 President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. January 13 Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugosl - Colliers Magazine publishes a series of articles on man's future in space, igniting the interest of people around the world. The series includes numerous articles by Ley and von Braun, illustrated by Chesley Bonestell.
• 1957Events January January 2 San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge. January 3 Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch January 4 After 69 years the last issue of Colliers magazine is published January 5 Russell Endean becomes t - Launch of the first ICBM, the USSR's R-7 (8K71), known to NATO as the SS-6 Sapwood.
• 1957 - The USSR launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite.
• 1958 - The US launches Explorer I, the first American artificial satellite, on a Jupiter-C rocket.
• 1958 - US launches their first ICBM, the Atlas-B (the Atlas-A was a test article only).
• 1961 - the USSR launches Vostok 1, Yuri Gagarin reached a height of 327 km above Earth and was the first man to orbit earth.
  • - US, a Mercury capsule named Freedom 7 with Alan B. Shepard, spacecraft was launched by a Redstone rocket on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight.
• 1962 - The US launches Mercury MA-6 (Friendship 7) on an Atlas D booster, John Glenn finally puts America in orbit.
• 1963 - The USSR launches Vostok 6, Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman (and first civilian) to orbit earth. She remained in space for nearly three days and orbited the earth 48 times.
• 1966 - Luna 9, the first soft landing on the Moon
• 1969 - US Apollo 11, first men on the Moon, first lunar surface extravehicular activity.
• 1981 - US space shuttle pioneers reusability and glide landings
• 1998 - US Deep Space 1 is first deep space mission to use a ion thruster for propulsion
• 2004 - US SpaceShipOne pioneers commercial reusability, carried launch and glide landings