TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ROCKETRY
It is said that some 55 years ago, a group of German scientists stood at Peenemunde to watch the launch of the world's first successful ballistic missile. After the 14-meter long V-2 had soared 80 km up and 120 km downrange, Wehrmacht Major General Walter Dornberger turned to the project's civilian technical director, Wernher Von Braun and said "Do you realize what we accomplished today? Today the spaceship was born" (Nelan, 1992, 35).
In a small sense, he was correct, but in a larger sense, he was dead wrong, wrong in assuming that any technological event is a "birth" of something new. Isaac Newton, founder of modern physics was once asked how he was able to come up with so many inventions. He is reported to have answered "By standing on the shoulders of giants" (Dasgupta, 1994, 23)
Looking back through history, there are many other achievements that could equally be argued as the "birth of the Space Ship." The Chinese, after inventing gunpowder in the ninth century came up with the rocket in the 10th century (Encarta, 1997). The Arabs, who traded with the Chinese, are credited with introducing it in the 13th century to Europe, where it found sporadic use as a weapon and wider use as fireworks. Its spread was probably aided by the publication of the correct formula for explosive powder (black gunpowder) by the English monk Roger Bacon in the middle of the 13th century, an event also important in that it was probably directly related to the invention of firearms around 1300 (Encarta, 1997).
Another event that could be argued as the birth of the Space Ship was a device created by John Thermos to keep drinks either cold or hot. His thermos bottle was basically a cylinder inside a cylinder and created a whole new technology that led to air conditioning, jet planes, and frozen foods (Dasgupta, 1994, 88).
The point is that no technology, no invention is created
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