How has rockets changed over time?

Answer 1

The short, simple version:

The ancient Chinese were perhaps the first rocket designers. Their rockets were loaded with black powder and were used for fireworks (celebrations) and pyrotechnics (warfare). While they were relatively effective, there is little information available on their construction. Likely, they were built using paper and light wood or bamboo.

Later version of rockets, especially those used for warfare were a bit more technologically advanced. The Nazis of WWII built V1 and V2 ballistic rockets. Later versions were gyroscopically stabilized, but they were largely point and shoot devices. That is they were generally aimed, fueled to reach their destination, and when the fuel ran out, the bomb dropped destroying whatever it hit.

During the fifties and sixties American and Soviet technology developed to the point that liquid fueled rockets were used to launch vehicles into orbit around the Earth, and to send manned expeditions to the moon. The technology and actual engines were adapted from intercontinental missiles. They stood stories tall, and utilized advanced guidance and control systems.

While American and Soviet technology stood at the forefront of rocket and missile technology, they took divergent paths. Americans sought smaller, more accurate systems, while Russian research built bigger vehicles and much heavier payloads.

Perhaps the height of current rocket technology was reached in the late seventies and early eighties with the development of the Pershing II missile system. The accuracy and reliability of the engines and guidance systems of the PII far exceeded anything the Russian programs were able to build, and beyond the imagination of anything existing in any other nation of the world.