The first rocket history we have is actually back in the first century when the Chinese would actually fill bamboo shoots with explosive material similar to gun powder and launch them on arrows with bows. American involvement started with Robert Goddard in 1926 when he built his first rocket with liquid oxygen and gasoline. His rocket went for only two-and-a-half seconds and forty feet. So its pretty amazing how far we've come now to send people and rockets to different planets.
Jessica Collisson
Integration and Test Engineer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory