Robert Goddard
1882-1945
-thought that liquid fueled staged rockets were the way to get a rocket into space
-1920 was made fun of him for his theories in a major American Newspaper (theory of sending a rocket to the moon)
-enjoyed working alone and then kept his theories to himself
-March 16, 1926 was the first to launch a liquid fueled rocket
-it flew 41 feet
-did not live to see Apollo 11
-always wanted to land a rocket on the moon

Herman Oberth
1894-1989
-in 1909, at 14, he developed a plan for a liquid fueled rocket applying Newton's third law of motion
-takes a little credit for beginning the German space program
-1923 wrote own book "Rocket into Interplanetary Space"
-born in Austria
-not an inventor
-also thought about food, suits and walks in space
-1955 joined Von Braun in the United States
-died in 1989

Robert Esnault-Pelterie
-believed aviation was the beginning of space travel
-thought the largest problem before sending humans into space was finding the "perfect" fuel
-1930-1940 looked for the fuel
-with the invasion of France in 1940 his work had to be temporarily stopped
-post WWII it was restarted
-french pioneer

Konstantin Tsiolkovsly
-son of a Russian forester
-serious illness left him almost completely deaf and made it hard for him to go to school
-studied alone: mathematics, physics, astronomy
-wondered how space travel could be achieved
-basic theory of rocket propulsion
-liquid propellant rockets
-would need a sealed cabin, oxygen reserves and an air purification system
-calculated speed and the correct fuel amount for the rocket to break through the gravitational force of the Earth and reach orbit
-suggested the chemical propellants
-created theories of the effects of no gravity on people
-artificial Earth satellites
-theory of multi-staged rockets
-Sputnik was launched October 4,1957, a month after the -hundreth anniversary of his birthday

Werner Von Braun
1912-1977
-also composed music
-built a rocket propelled vehicle
-six fire crackers attatched to a wagoning lit it shot into town where the firecrackers exploded and Von Braun was caught by the police
-worked as a rocket scientist in Germany from 1937-1945
-his team created the V-2 rocket-post WWII himself and more than 100 German scientists were brought to the U.S. as apart of "Operation Paperclip"
-they designed the Redstone rockets which sent the first Americans into space
-in 1932 he was in charge of the development of rockets for military weapons for the German army
-first rocket designed A1 redesigned to A2
-the new A4 was renamed by the ministry as then Vengance weapon 2
-thousands were built
-was a destruction weapon and brought terror
-still wanted to work on rockets for space
-after NASA was established on October 1, 1958, Von Braun was brought over two years later where he developed the Saturn I, IB, and V
-he became a huge part of George C. Marshall, Space flight in Huntsville, Alabama

Serge Pavolvivh Korolev
-1907 born in Russia which is now the Ukraine
-built a glider at 18
-1930 left flying school to work on rocket development
-directed "group for the study of jet propulsion"
-first Soviet liquid-propellant rockets were built and tested
-1938 was imprisoned as well as aircraft design engineer Andrei Tupolev
-forced to work in a scientific labor camp
-launched the world's first satellite (Sputnik)
-helped the start of the space race