Illustration from the satirical novel ??? Voyage to the Moon??by Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655), French novelist and playwright. The picture shows him aborting his first attempt to fly to the Moon by jettisoning bottles of dewdrops(the propellant) as he was heading for the Sun. This humorous science-fiction fantasy includes contemporary political commentary and philosophising with the Moon-men and other characters he meets on the Moon. He shows an understanding and knowledge of contemporary science, such as Earth rotation and heliocentricity. He speculates on the possibility of an infinite universe with multiple suns and planets. His description of the successful fantasy voyage to the Moon with rockets contains elements of today's space flight technology - aircraft design, jet-assisted take-off, multi-stage launch vehicle, gravitational fields, and lunar insertion trajectories.