People dreamed of flying into space long before it was possible.
In his 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon, French fiction writer Jules Verne used scientific ideas to describe how ordinary citizens used a cannon to attempt an expedition to the moon. Thirty-two years later, British novelist H. G. Wells described invaders from Mars and interplanetary travel in his novel War of the Worlds. To turn these science fiction fantasies into reality, scientists and engineers had to figure out a way to escape Earth’s gravity. Rockets were the answer.
