Collection: Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation

The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation derived by the Russian schoolteacher and scientist Tsiolkovsky (Russian: Константин Циолковский) in 1898 who independently derived it and published it in his 1903 work. The equation had been derived earlier by the British mathematician William Moore in 1810, and later published in a separate book in 1813.

The minister William Leitch, who was a capable scientist, also independently derived the fundamentals of rocketry in 1861. Robert Goddard in America independently developed the equation in 1912 when he began his research to improve rocket engines for possible space flight. Hermann Oberth in Europe independently derived the equation about 1920 as he studied the feasibility of space travel.

While the derivation of the rocket equation is a straightforward calculus exercise, Tsiolkovsky is honored as being the first to apply it to the question of whether rockets could achieve speeds necessary for space travel. It describes how rockets move in space – expelling part of its mass. A device that can apply acceleration to itself using thrust by expelling part of its mass with high velocity can thereby move due to the conservation of momentum.

“Mankind will not forever remain on Earth” – Tsiolkovsky (1911)