Different types of space shuttles
The origin of rockets: the desire to reach the unknown!
A rocket is, of course, a technically highly perfected object enabling the conquest of space. However, there is no doubt that there is something more in any rocket: a dream, the typically human desire to see further, to go higher, to go beyond life on earth…
La tour de Babel - Bruegel
Reaching the heavens
You know the story of the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament: man wanted to build a tower up to heaven. In order to stop him, God introduced all the different languages to earth, and since nobody could understand each other anymore, they could not manage to build the tower…but the desire to reach heaven remained at the heart of man’s dreams. This dream is still alive and well, although now the reason is not necessarily in order to find or to be equal to God, but in order to understand nature!
From dream to reality
Myths and legends describing man’s relationship with the world and the gods have, since early times, told stories of humans climbing up to the heavens. Before this could actually be accomplished, half way through the twentieth century, it was through imagery that people dreamt of these great spaces. Poets, in particular, were considered to have a special link with the skies above. Charles Baudelaire, the famous author of the Fleurs du Mal ("The Flowers of Evil"), wrote a collection of thoughts in prose entitled Fusées (“Rockets”). By this it would seem that he wanted to suggest not only the poet’s link with the Great Beyond but also the speed and dazzling intensity of poetic thought.
How do you name a rocket?
It is interesting to look at how scientists have named their rockets. Many refer back to man's dreams before launchers were created. The first real American launcher was called “Atlas”, after the god who, in ancient Greek mythology, carried the world on his shoulders. And then there is the name of the European rocket, Ariane, after the daughter of Minos, the king of Crete; known in English as Ariadne, she offered Theseus a ball of thread so that he could find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. Furthermore, Ariane’s main engine is called “Vulcain”, after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forges. The scientists have obviously not forgotten these mythical stories!
