The Life of Konstantin Tsiolokovsky

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was a Russian mathematics teacher who in 1903 published the ‘Tsiolkovsky formula’ which is an equation that remains the basis of spacecraft engineering even today. This formula established the relationships among rocket speed, the speed of the gas at exit, and the mass of the rocket and its propellant. Tsiolkovsky also conducted theoretical work on the design of liquid-fuel rocket engineering which included the ideas of throttling capability and multi-staging, gyroscopes, escape velocities from the Earth’s gravitational field, and the principle of action and reaction. He paved the way for Sputnik I (the world’s first artificial satellite) and the Vostok rocket (the first of manned spaceflight). Tsiolkovsky is considered one of the fathers of rocketry.
Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), considered the father of modern rocketry, was a physics professor who had a talent for practical engineering and experimentation. By 1926, he constructed and tested the world’s first liquid-fuel rocket. Goddard’s work also included using gyroscopes and vanes for steering, and in 1929, he tested the first rocket to carry scientific instruments (a barometer and camera) which he separated from the rocket in flight and returned to Earth.
Roberts Esnault-Pelterie (1881-1957) was a French rocket pioneer who suggested that rockets could be used as long-range ballistic missiles. He experimented with various liquid fuels in rocket motors of his designs.
Hermann Oberth
Hermann Oberth (1894-1992), a German physicist and mathematician born in Romania was the final of the three founding fathers of rocketry. Although Oberth conducted similar research and arrived at similar conclusions as Tsiolkovsky and Goddard, there is no evide...

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At the end of World War II, the von Braun team surrendered to the U.S. forces rather than risk capture by the Soviet army. In Huntsville, Alabama, von Braun and his team worked on the ballistic rockets called Redstone, Jupiter C, Juno and the Saturn 1B. In 1953, von Braun launched the Redstone rocket and in 1956, the Jupiter C, a three-stage rocket, flew 500km and reached an altitude of 1000km. In 1960, von Braun’s group headquarters became the George C. Marshall Space Flight Centre and the group became responsible for all space launch vehicles for NASA. Von Braun developed the Saturn V rocket that propelled the first astronauts to the moon.

One of von Braun’s largest contributions was as he was the head of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre, helping develop the Saturn V booster rocket that helped land the first men on the Moon in July 1969.