History of rockets

The first gunpowder-powered rockets were developed in the Song Dynasty in China by the 13th century. The technology spread throughout the Old World in the wake of the Mongol invasions of the mid-13th century. Medieval and early modern rockets were used militarily as incendiary weapons in sieges.

The first iron-cased rockets were developed in the late 15th century in the Kingdom of Mysore, adopted and improved as the Congreve rocket and used in the Napoleonic Wars. Use of liquid propellants instead of gunpowder greatly improved the effectiveness of rocket artillery in World War I, and opened up the possibility of manned spaceflight after 1918.

The first red rockets were developed in Song China, by the 13th century. An uncertain early use of rockets may date to 1232. There were reports of fire arrows and 'iron pots' that could be heard for 5 leagues (25 km, or 15 miles) when they exploded upon impact, causing devastation for a radius of 600 meters (2,000 feet), apparently due to shrapnel. The lowering of the iron pots may have been a way for a besieged army to blow up invaders. The problem is that the Chinese term "fire arrow" (火箭) may refer to either arrows with explosives attached, or to arrows propelled by gunpowder, such as the Korean Hwacha.

Somewhat more certain is the reference to the use of internal-combustion rocket propulsion in 1264, recording that the 'ground-rat,' a type of firework, had frightened the Empress-Mother Kung Sheng at a feast held in her honor by her son the Emperor Lizong.

Subsequently, one of the earliest texts to mention the use of rockets was the Huolongjing, written by the Chinese artillery officer Jiao Yu in the mid-14th century. This text also mentioned the use of the first known multistage rocket, the 'fire-dragon issuing from the water' (huo long chu shui), used mostly by the Chinese navy.Frank H. Winter proposed in The Proceedings of the Twentieth and Twenty-First History Symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics that southern China and the Laotian community rocket festivals might have been key in the subsequent spread of rocketry in the Orient.

...
Wikipedia