62: It is Rocket Science

We talk about rocketry from ancient times up through the early 1960s, concentrating on the chemistry, that is fuels to power rockets. We talk of the initial Chinese rockets and rocket-based toys and gimmicks created by ancient Greeks and Romans. We jump forward to the early 20th century and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who discussed possible rocket fuels for outer-space travel. We hear of the work of Robert Goddard and Hermann Oberth, and rocketry societies. The Nazis advanced rocketry to bring missiles, which sparked much interest in American and Soviet research during and after World War II. At this time, solid fuels began to be cast with polymers. We talk of various solid-fuel formulations, and liquid fuels as well. Finally, I mention a bit about ion-powered rockets.