![]() ![]() The first rocket launch site in the United States was at the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico, where the surrounding desert provided plenty of space to launch early rockets. That’s how it’s been for the past 60 years of rocketry, and it’ll likely keep changing in the future. Why is this important? Well, as aviation technology and, therefore, rocketry advanced, old practices were left behind and new techniques were fine-tuned to create the world of space exploration we have today. The amount of technology that had to be developed in just 66 years for that to happen is astounding, to say the least. There were people who were kids during the first flight and retirees when the Moon landing happened. Just 66 years after the first successful airplane flight, humans landed on the moon. On July 20, 1969, man first stepped foot on the Moon. This new form of flight introduced the possibility of launching craft into space which, in 1957, was accomplished by the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1. The 1950s saw the development of both surface-to-air missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The air became a battle field a year into World War I after machine guns were attached and reconnaissance missions were planned. This is considered to be the beginning of the Pioneer Era of aviation.įlash forward just twelve years into 1915, and airplanes are not only successfully flying, but they go higher, become faster and last longer every day. Not only was this the first successful manned flight, but it was also the first successful motor-operated airplane ever to be built. The first ever successful airplane flight was in 1903 when Wilbur and Orville Wright flew the Wright Flyer off the sandy dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Gliders outfitted with small motors dominated the field as people got closer and closer to successfully powering a machine through the air. Most of the century was filled with a myriad of flying machine prototypes that were tested across the world by inventors of all experiences. The development of these aircraft slowed in the early 1800s as inventors focused on heavier-than-air machines that were powered by motors, rather than air. Examples of this include the hot-air balloon and the Zeppelin airship. Have you ever watched a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral? Well, it’s the experience of a lifetime and one that’s easily attainable!īut what made NASA choose Cape Canaveral as the launch site for all their space-bound enterprises? Read on to find out more about the history of rocketry in the United States and how Florida became the launchpad to space! Why do rockets launch from Florida? Rocket launches back thenīefore we look at the early history of rocketry, let’s just step back to appreciate the sheer speed at which aeronautical technology was advancing in the early 20th century.Īir travel had been a topic of inventors’ discussions for thousands of years, but many early inventions and prototypes utilized lighter-than-air techniques to give buoyancy to their crafts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |