Solid gunpowder rockets: China (Song Dynasty, ~13th century). Used as fireworks and weapons; no distinct “engine” names. Technology later reached India and Europe. Mysorean rockets: Kingdom of Mysore (India), late 18th century. Iron-cased solid rockets used in warfare. Congreve rockets: United Kingdom, early 19th century. Improved solid-propellant military rockets based on Indian designs. Pioneering liquid engines (1920s–1940s)Goddard’s liquid rocket (unnamed experimental engines): United States. Robert Goddard flew the first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926 using liquid oxygen and gasoline. Small, pressure-fed designs laid the foundation for later work. en.wikipedia.org A-4 / V-2 engine: Germany. First large, reliable liquid engine (LOX + alcohol, turbopump-fed). Powered the V-2 ballistic missile in the early 1940s and became the direct ancestor of most post-war engines in the US and Soviet Union. interestingengineering.com Cold War and Space Age (1950s–1980s)United StatesRedstone / A-1 family (Rocketdyne): Early ballistic-missile engine (alcohol/LOX), later used on early space launches. F-1: Most powerful single-chamber liquid engine ever flown. Five of them powered Saturn V’s first stage (kerosene/LOX). J-2: Hydrogen/LOX upper-stage engine for Saturn V and later vehicles. RL10: Long-lived hydrogen/LOX expander-cycle upper-stage engine (still in use in evolved forms). SSME / RS-25: High-performance hydrogen/LOX staged-combustion engine originally built for the Space Shuttle; now used on SLS. drewexmachina.com Soviet Union / RussiaRD-100 / RD-101 / RD-103 series: Early post-war engines derived from the German A-4. RD-107 / RD-108: Four-chamber kerosene/LOX engines that powered the R-7 (Sputnik, Gagarin, and the Soyuz family still flying today). RD-170 / RD-171 / RD-180 / RD-191 family: High-pressure staged-combustion kerosene/LOX engines. RD-170 is among the most powerful liquid engines ever built; derivatives flew on Energia, Zenit, Atlas V, and Angara. NK-15 / NK-33: Kuznetsov kerosene/LOX engines developed for the N1 Moon rocket. RD-0120: Hydrogen/LOX staged-combustion engine for Energia’s core. sovietspaceprogram.c Other countries in this periodLimited independent large-engine work; many nations later licensed or copied US/Soviet technology. Modern era (1990s–present)United StatesMerlin 1D: SpaceX kerosene/LOX gas-generator engine that powers Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy (most-flown reusable liquid engine). Raptor: SpaceX methane/LOX full-flow staged-combustion engine for Starship. BE-4: Blue Origin methane/LOX staged-combustion engine for New Glenn and Vulcan. RS-68: Large hydrogen/LOX gas-generator engine (Delta IV). RussiaContinued evolution of the RD-107/108 (Soyuz) and RD-191 (Angara) families. Europe (primarily France / ArianeGroup)Vulcain / Vulcain 2 / Vulcain 2.1: Hydrogen/LOX core-stage engines for Ariane 5 and Ariane 6. Vinci: Modern hydrogen/LOX expander-cycle upper-stage engine for Ariane 6. HM7B: Earlier hydrogen/LOX upper-stage engine. JapanLE-5 / LE-5A / LE-5B family: Hydrogen/LOX upper-stage engines (H-II / H3). LE-7 / LE-7A: Hydrogen/LOX staged-combustion first-stage engines (H-II). LE-9: Newer expander-bleed hydrogen/LOX first-stage engine for H3. ChinaYF-20 series: Hypergolic engines for early Long March rockets. YF-100 / YF-100K: Kerosene/LOX staged-combustion engines for Long March 5/6/7/8. YF-75 / YF-75D / YF-77: Hydrogen/LOX engines for Long March 3 and 5 families. IndiaCE-7.5: Hydrogen/LOX staged-combustion upper-stage engine (GSLV Mk II). CE-20: Larger hydrogen/LOX gas-generator upper-stage engine (LVM3 / GSLV Mk III). Others OthersRutherford: Rocket Lab (New Zealand / US) electric-pump-fed kerosene/LOX engine for Electron. Various developmental methane or propane engines in Germany, South Korea, and private US/New Zealand firms. en.wikipedia.org The three countries that did the decisive early large-scale work were the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union. After World War II the technology proliferated; today the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, and India all operate indigenous high-performance liquid engines. Solid motors remain important for boosters and missiles but are usually not given individual “engine” names in the same way liquid engines are. Vanguard 1 (United States, launched 17 March 1958) is the oldest artificial object still circling Earth. It is a 16 cm aluminum sphere that stopped transmitting in 1964 but remains in a high elliptical orbit. Its rocket upper stage is also still up there. en.wikipedia.org A few other late-1950s and 1960 satellites (Vanguard 2 and 3, Explorer 7, TIROS-1, etc.) are also still in orbit. All are silent and tracked as debris. keeptrack.space Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, and Explorer 1 reentered decades ago. Nothing older than the Space Age exists in catalogued Earth orbit. The “ancient satellite” claimThe story that usually appears is the Black Knight satellite: an alleged 12,000–13,000-year-old alien craft in polar orbit. That claim is a mash-up of unrelated events:Early radio anomalies (Tesla’s 1899 signals, 1920s long-delayed echoes) 1950s newspaper reports of unknown objects that were later identified as stray Discoverer/Corona spy-satellite capsules A 1998 Space Shuttle photo of a lost thermal blanket from STS-88, which reentered a few days later None of these items is ancient, and none is an unexplained satellite still in orbit. The story has been repeatedly fact-checked and does not hold up. en.wikipedia.org Other “pre-Sputnik” claimsA few astronomers have noted unexplained short-lived dots (“transients”) on pre-1957 photographic plates. These are under study; proposed explanations include plate defects, meteors, or nuclear-test debris. They have not been confirmed as artificial satellites, and no object matching an ancient spacecraft has been tracked by modern radar or optical surveys. technology.org Ancient cultures used meteoritic iron that fell from space to make beads and tools on Earth. That is the opposite of placing something into space. No civilization before 1957 had the means to reach orbit.So: the oldest satellites we have found are mid-20th-century machines. There are no verified ancient ones. Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957.It was a 58 cm polished metal sphere that transmitted a simple radio “beep” for 21 days. It stayed in orbit until 4 January 1958, when it burned up on re-entry. That launch is universally recognized as the start of the Space Age. universemagazine.com The next satellites were also Soviet (Sputnik 2, 3 November 1957) and then American (Explorer 1, 31 January 1958). The oldest object still in orbit is the U.S. Vanguard 1, launched 17 March 1958.