Overview

After the Chinese designed the first rockets, they used the "fire arrows" to repel Mongol invaders. Those early defenders would be amazed to discover the hundreds of satellites launched into orbit around Earth using technologies that developed from their invention. With the launch of the first man-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957, the world began considering the vast possibilities to be found in the "space" above the planet's surface. Satellites rapidly evolved from Sputnik's simplistic beeping radio transmitters to the sophisticated communications relay stations orbiting Earth in the 1990s, revolutionizing the way mankind experienced the world.

Background

Around 300 B.C. the Chinese invented gunpowder, which was later packed into bamboo tubes to make a primitive firecracker. By 1232, when the Chinese defended their lands from Mongol invaders during the battle of Kai-Keng, an inventive native had decided to add the...