After choosing to work with private financial support, he was the first to launch a liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926.

During World War II, the first guided rocket, the V-2, was developed and employed as a weapon by Nazi Germany. During a test flight in June 1944, one such rocket reached space at an altitude of 189 km, becoming the first human-made object to reach space. At the end of World War II, most of the V-2 rocket team,