the history of liquid rocket propellants
Today, the reaction between liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is used extensively for space shuttle launches and other rockets, but its origin in the United States, was in 1962, when the first LOX/LH₂ rocket was created, Atlas, using the Centaur upper stage, which contained two tanks of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Then, in 1967, the Saturn V, another American rocket, successfully used this reaction to power its main engine. In 1981, the reaction was used to power the main engine of the space shuttle, which is the most well known type of rocket, and has been used many times, successfully, by NASA.
For the true discovery of this reaction as a rocket propellant, you must go even further back in time, to the 1930's. In the late 1930's, in Germany, Walter Thiel experimented with a LOX/LH₂ rocket engine, but experienced difficulties with it leaking, and it was abandoned. In the United States, liquid hydrogen was first tested as a potential rocket fuel in Ohio State University, in 1943, just after World War II. The reaction was formed by cooling the two elements into a liquid form, and then storing them separately until the time for them to react with one another.
For the true discovery of this reaction as a rocket propellant, you must go even further back in time, to the 1930's. In the late 1930's, in Germany, Walter Thiel experimented with a LOX/LH₂ rocket engine, but experienced difficulties with it leaking, and it was abandoned. In the United States, liquid hydrogen was first tested as a potential rocket fuel in Ohio State University, in 1943, just after World War II. The reaction was formed by cooling the two elements into a liquid form, and then storing them separately until the time for them to react with one another.