Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools. The father of modern rocket propulsion is the American physicist, Robert Hutchings Goddard . Along with Konstantin Eduordovich Tsiolkovsky of Russia and Hermann Oberth of Germany, Goddard envisioned the exploration of space. By 1918 he had improved rocket design by using smokeless powder instead of black powder and by adding a nozzle that improved the rocket motor's efficiency. In memory of this brilliant scientist, a major space science laboratory, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, Maryland, was established on May 1, 1959.
Rocket engines are reaction engines.
A rocket engine expels mass in one direction and moves with the reaction that occurs in the other direction as a result. A rocket is propelled by the expulsion of gases generated in a combustion chamber . A rocket develops thrust independent of its surroundings, unlike jet engines that need oxygen from the atmosphere to burn fuel. A rocket engine is self-contained and is currently the only type of device suitable for space flight. In both types the combustion chamber is called the motor .