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Rockets have been used for hundreds of years and so it is difficult to know how many were made that failed. In fact, rockets are a result of a thousand of years of experimentation! China began using rockets around 1100 AD, mainly in the form of fireworks. You can read more about the history of rockets here, in another Explainer answer! The first successful fuel-propellant rocket was created in 1926 by a scientist named Robert Goddard.