Long before it was possible, people dreamed about flying into space.
In 1865, French fiction writer Jules Verne published his novel From the Earth to the Moon. It used scientific ideas in a story about people using a cannon to travel to the moon. Thirty-two years later, British novelist H. G. Wells published The War of the Worlds. It was about invaders from Mars and interplanetary travel. Scientists and engineers wanted to make these science fiction fantasies real. First, they had to figure out a way to escape Earth’s gravity. Rockets were the answer.