Man's dream of traveling in space is as old as human civilization itself. The development of the rocket that assisted in this voyage began between 347 and 428 BC when the Egyptian philosopher and astronomer R. K. Tass first developed a machine that could fly in the air.  The evolution of rockets continued with centuries of human evolution, and space travel was first introduced as a regular possibility by Robert H. Goddard. Although Goddard has been criticized all his life for his laws and research, the fact is that the world today acknowledges that it was Robert Goddard who made space travel possible thanks to his research on liquid fuels. In the 20 years since Goddard's death, the United States and Russia have made rapid progress in rocket development and space travel. Although the United States was technically far ahead of Russia, it began with Russia's Sputnik space program. The series, consisting of three space missions, began on October 4, 1957 with Sputnik One. This