Space Exploration is the quest to use space travel to discover the nature of the universe beyond earth. Today's Space Exploration started in 1957 with the launch of the first artificial satellite, but since ancient times people have dreamed of leaving their home planet and exploring other worlds. Every era through out history has had a belief as to what the "heavens" are made form. The Greeks believed that the stars and space were made of a material called "Quitenses", and other culture once thought that the stars were made of their peoples passed away. We know now what stars (or suns) are really made of; they are made of various gases that explode over and over again.
             Mankind has come along ways from the days when we could only guess what was out there. The history of Space Exploration really began in 1957 with the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, sent into space by the Soviets. Up until about 43 years ago people did not have the means to travel to or send objects into space. The hardest part of traveling into space was developing rockets that were powerful enough and reliable enough to boost an object into space. These rockets needed more then just brute force, they also needed a guidance system that was capable of keep the rocket on track, and to make sure that it reached a high enough orbit. Rockets were fist used in the 11th century China; these rockets were fuelled by gunpowder and were launched against enemy troops. In the centuries that followed these rockets made an appearance in Europe. They were once used in 1814 by the British against the Americans during an attack on New Orleans, but they had little effect. In Russia, almost a century later, a schoolteacher by the name of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky saw that rockets might be used to carry people or objects into space. He designed a plan but didn't have the means to build the rocket. Most of the rocketry research during the 20th century wa...