If you were to ask someone about their opinion of rockets they would probably say that rockets are "neat" or that they were "interesting" or "fun". But what a lot of people don't realize is that rockets are more than just toys that you might buy your child. If you were to ask them their opinion on missiles however (a missile being just a guided rocket,) they would most likely have a different opinion. The problem is that rockets are having so many uses that it would be hard to get an accurate general opinion one way or another. Generally, in this country, rockets used for destructive purposes are disliked, and rockets that are used for exploration, technology and entertainment are generally approved of. The lines between these types of rockets are sometimes blurred.

(There isn't a very big environmental concern about rockets and their fuel because, one rockets are not widely used and contribute a very very small amount of hazardous gases to the overall pollution that is released each year. Not only that, most large rockets use very little hazardous gases anyway.)

In my opinion rockets are one of the greatest inventions of mankind. Without them many of the inventions that we take for granted today would not exist. Directly or indirectly the rocket has inspired some of the most useful and ingenious inventions. With out rocket, we would not have things like satellite communication, jet propulsion. (Jets use the same principle as rockets but use air as the oxidizer.) Indirectly the microwave and the Internet, and even computers would not have been invented. You may be wondering what rockets have to do with the Internet, but you must realize that the Internet (along with many other inventions) was a direct result of the cold war. The cold war was a nuclear arms race between the United States of America and the former Soviet Union. This race would not have been sparked without the availability of long-range ballistic missiles. Also I believe that rockets will be the only things in the future that will insure the survival of the human race. The Earth will not be around forever and it will be habitable for an even less amount of time. That meant that if the human race wants any chance of living longer than that, we would need to have some way to move through space. An currently rockets are the only efficient way of moving through space.