History
The early history of astronautics is theoretical: the fundamental mathematics of space travel was established by Isaac Newton in his 1687 treatise Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Other mathematicians, such as Swiss Leonhard Euler and Italian Joseph Louis Lagrange also made essential contributions in the 18th and 19th centuries. In spite of this, astronautics did not become a practical discipline until the mid-20th century. On the other hand, the question of space flight tickled the literary imaginations of such figures as Jules Verne and HG Wells.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky derived the famous rocket equation, the governing equation for a rocket-based propulsion. This equation makes it possible to compute the final velocity of a rocket from the mass of spacecraft, combined mass of propellant and spacecraft and exhaust velocity of the propellant .
For more information on the mathematical basis of space travel, see space mathematics.
By the early 1920s, the American Robert Goddard was developing liquid-fueled rockets, which would in a few brief decades become a critical component in the designs of such famous rockets as the V-2 and Saturn V.
Read more about this topic: Astronautics
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