Soon the first man-made satellites will be hurtled at 19,000 miles an hour to an orbit 300 miles from the earth; they will be carried there by three-stage rockets, and this book explains in fascinating detail how this has been made possible because of the pioneering work of a few resolute and patient men.

Although the history of rockets as weapons goes back many centuries, their use for the scientific research of outer space, and their evolution from fireworks to the intricate liquid-fuel-propelled mechanisms of the present day, is of very recent development. The Rocket Pioneers tells the whole extraordinary story from the days of the Englishman, Sir William Congreve, to the founders of modern scientific research in this field—the Russian, Konstantin Ziolkovsky; the Frenchman, Jules Verne; the American, Robert Hutchings Goddard; the Austrian, Hermann Oberth, and many others who are well known for their work on rocketry and space-travel theory.

The authors, who undertook a great deal of research when writing this book, also tell of the history, early experiments and experiences of the American and German Societies, the British Interplanetary Society, and the German Peenemünde Group—but this is primarily the story of the vision, the determination, and the achievements of a few men who will always deserve to be known as the great rocket pioneers.

From the dust jacket