The launch of a rocket into orbit should never become routine. There was a time, probably around the 50’s and 60’s that a rocket launch hit the headlines. Now its just another launch. Last year (2024) saw a record breaking 263 launches. The US launched 158, China launched 68 and other countries/regions like Europe, Russian and Japan. Last year just 224 launches were completed and two years ago in 2022, 168 launches were completed.
Surprisingly perhaps, prior to 2020 the record was set at 141 back in 1967, the future of rocket flight still seems quite alive! Surprisingly perhaps, rocket flight in its purest form dates back centuries with its origins in ancient China. The 9th century Chinese were recorded to have fired gunpowder propelled bamboo tubes at their enemies in the first examples of rocket flight. Modern rocketry only began to take shape in the 20th century thanks to the work from engineers and scientists like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Robert Goddard. Tsiolkovsky’s theoretical work laid the foundations for rocketry, while Goddard successfully launched the first liquid-fuelled rocket in 1926 in the United States. During World War II, rocket technology advanced rapidly driven sadly for the search for weaponry not exploration. The development of the V-2 rocket by Germany marked the first long-range ballistic missile while the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union further accelerated rocket development. Eventually this lead to the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 and the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969 and in the years that followed rocket launches for missions to explore distant planets and the establishment of space stations. The Sputnik spacecraft stunned the world when it was launched into orbit on Oct. 4th, 1954. Credit: NASA Perhaps one of the most spectacular developments over recent years and 2024 saw this demonstrated beautifully, spacecraft landing back successfully under rocket control