Researched
Liquid-fuel rocket (V-2)
Germany's V-2 (1942-44) is the first rocket to reach space.
Open in the interactive tree →Konstantin Tsiolkovsky derived the rocket equation in 1903. Wernher von Braun's team built the V-2, which reached over 170 km in 1944 and became the basis of both the US and Soviet space programmes after the war. The V-2 was a weapon, built with forced labour, and killed thousands.
Prerequisites
- Newtonian Mechanics1687
- Thermodynamics1824Rocket engines are heat engines; combustion and nozzle design follow thermodynamics
- Internal Combustion Engine1876
- Tsiolkovsky's Rocket Equation1903
- Gyrocompass & Autopilot1908The V-2 was steered by gyroscopic guidance
- Goddard's Liquid-Fuel Rocket1926Goddard's liquid-fuel rocket showed the propellant system the V-2 used