Listen to the biggest hits from Georges Lannes, including and more on Slacker Radio.
A key advance was the invention of the first liquid-fuelled rocket in 1926 by the American Robert Goddard in Auburn, Massachusetts. Goddard is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern rocket era.
A version of the Redstone rocket, known as the Jupiter C, on January 31, 1958, was used to launch America's first satellite, Explorer I. Three years later, Mercury Redstones launched Alan Sheppard and Gus Grissom on suborbital space flights, paving the way for John Glenn's first orbital flight.