There has been the topic of rockets in USA history for a long time. War rockets, not just the kind that fly to outer space.
The national anthem is a really short song, but, challenging to sing as witnessed over the decades.
"The Star Spangled Banner" (click here)
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
September 2014
By Frank Winter
We know they had a “red glare,” (click here) but what kind of rocket did the British fire in 1814?
Americans (click here) know these words: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.” The line has a special meaning to me, as the former curator of rocketry at the National Air and Space Museum, because the rockets that inspired Francis Scott Key to write what would become the national anthem represent one of the foundations of modern rocketry. Two hundred years ago this month, Key witnessed the British fleet launching the rockets over Baltimore Harbor during the battle for Fort McHenry, an historic victory that interrupted a string of U.S. defeats during the War of 1812. Today, on the National Air and Space Museum website, you can see a replica of the type of rocket the British used in the battle for Baltimore and throughout the war. The model was given to the Museum in 1976, a birthday present from the Science Museum of London....
The national anthem is a really short song, but, challenging to sing as witnessed over the decades.
"The Star Spangled Banner" (click here)
what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
September 2014
By Frank Winter
We know they had a “red glare,” (click here) but what kind of rocket did the British fire in 1814?
Americans (click here) know these words: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.” The line has a special meaning to me, as the former curator of rocketry at the National Air and Space Museum, because the rockets that inspired Francis Scott Key to write what would become the national anthem represent one of the foundations of modern rocketry. Two hundred years ago this month, Key witnessed the British fleet launching the rockets over Baltimore Harbor during the battle for Fort McHenry, an historic victory that interrupted a string of U.S. defeats during the War of 1812. Today, on the National Air and Space Museum website, you can see a replica of the type of rocket the British used in the battle for Baltimore and throughout the war. The model was given to the Museum in 1976, a birthday present from the Science Museum of London....
