What was the preperations getting to space? How did they get to the rocket design? Thank You

Question: What was the preperations getting to space? How did they get to the rocket design? Thank You
- Keywords:
  how science works,
  rocket,
  space
Asked by pythagoras to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 25 Jun 2012.
- Tom Lister answered on 25 Jun 2012:
  
  I heard rumours of Nazi rockets used to bomb people being a basis for the design, but similar ideas had been around for centuries.
  
  Most of the prep was experimental work, getting the burning rates for the fuels right and imrpoving stability of the rocket shape. Then they had to test them out by putting animals in space and seeing if they could survive.
- Tim Stephens answered on 25 Jun 2012:
  
  Tom’s right. The idea of using rockets goes back a long way, but got a big boost after World War 2, when both the Americans and Russian took German rocket scientists back to their countries to work on their space programs.
  I imagine that the designers knew that they needed to get a lot of powerful fuel into an aerodynamic body and strap a great big engine to the back. Rockets are that shape because a long thin body is the most aerodynamic way to meet those design goals.
- Philippa Bird answered on 25 Jun 2012:
  
  It takes about 30 years from the start of the preparations to actually getting something into space!

Question: What was the preperations getting to space? How did they get to the rocket design? Thank You