Space exploration is one of the many impressive feats achieved by humanity in the last century. Before the turn of the 20th century, scientists developed rockets that were powerful enough to fight against the earth’s gravitational pull and take flight into our atmosphere. Such an innovation was utilized by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, where rockets were utilized as missiles moving at velocities and heights that were otherwise unthinkable before then.

During the Cold War, a competition known as the Great Space Race began between the United States and the Soviet Union. This competition was named so because of its goal—to get humans on the moon. Such a feat was achieved on July 20, 1969, now a historical landmark for all of humanity and remembered as the day in which United States astronauts landed on the moon.

However, as incredible as these historical feats are, an important fact of the matter is that the scientists and astronauts did not do it by themselves. The oil industry had a very big impact on the development and advancements of space exploration since the very beginning and continues to have impacts into the modern day.

Oil in Space: A Brief History

In 1957, the Soviet space vessel known as Sputnik 2 took a stray dog from Moscow named Laika into space, making her the first lifeform to orbit the Earth. Four years later in 1961, a Soviet cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space aboard Vostok 1. In 1969, Saturn V launched Apollo 11 into the historic flight to land humans on the moon. All three of these space crafts share a very important factor in common: the fuel used to help take them out of Earth’s atmosphere and into space.

Sputnik 2, Vostok 1, and Saturn V all used RP-1, which is also known as Refined Petroleum-1. RP-1 is a form of kerosene that has been highly refined. It is a hydrocarbon—an organic compound made up of only hydrogen and carbon—and has a higher density than other fuels such as diesel or typical kerosene. However, unlike those or hypergolic fuels, RP-1 has the advantage of being less toxic to the environment. RP-1 is also relatively cheap to manufacture, easily stored, and has a higher energy density amongst many other advantages. While there are some drawbacks to the usage of RP-1 in rockets, such as how RP-1 creates residue in the engines and still creates air pollution despite being more environmentally friendly, its positives are what made it possible to use such historical movements in humanity’s space exploration of the mid-twentieth century.

Moving into the mid-1970s, humanity had a new mission to land on the planet Mars. Such a mission was carried out by the Viking program, a NASA program that launched two space probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2, into space. Initially launched in 1975 and landing on Mars in 1976, both probes utilized hyperbolic fuels—derived from oil and instantly ignited when mixed—to carry out their mission until all probes were shut down towards the beginning of the 1980s. By using hyperbolic fuels, the probes were able to achieve precise maneuvers, an incredibly important factor when exploring a planet mankind still has yet to set foot on.

The Future of Space Exploration and Oil

While the concept of space tourism has been discussed since the 1990s, recent years have seen that it can become our reality soon. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are big names in the future of space tourism, utilizing RP-1 and advanced fuel systems that aim to bring humanity to space on a regular basis and pushing the envelope on what we previously thought was possible.

While there are several challenges to overcome in the face of future space travel and exploration, it’s nothing humanity hasn’t done before. With technological and ecological advancements being made at break-neck speeds, the oil industry remains one of modern space exploration’s biggest allies in making the impossible possible.