New technology greatly effected space exploration and knowledge. Many new technologies helped scientists get a better picture of the universe and gather more accurate information. Still other technologies made the space race possible.

Reflexive telescopes gave much clearer immages than refracting telescopes and enabled scientists to get a better view of the universe. Improved telescopes, such as the telescope Newton invented, permitted scanning of planetary surfaces, new stars, and more specific measurements. As other technology improved, it enabled us to make larger, more exact telescopes that could collect x-ray, radio wave, gamma rays and ultraviolet waves emitting from objects in space.

The spectroscope, invented by the German physist Joseph von Fraunhofer, split light rays from distant objects into strips of color and light and dark streaks. This helped determine an objects makeup, as certain elements absorb certain wave lengths. The abscence of one color could tell scientists that that body was made up of an element that absorbed that wavelength.

One important new technology of the 1900s was the Saturn V rocket launcher. Similar rocket launchers, developed during WWII, led to the idea of using rockets to launch humans and man-made devices into space. The Saturn V rocket launcher was developed by Wernher von Braun, a German engineer, who came to the US in 1945, after the end of WWII. He and his team of engineers (who developed the V-2 rocket for the war) were hired by the US to build a rocket that could send people to the moon. The Saturn V rocket was a liquid-fueled rocket used to launch the Apollo spacecraft.