Dude predicted we'd literally use rockets to literally travel to the moon at a time when literally the only common application of rockets was for fireworks; the

Dude predicted we'd literally use rockets to literally travel to the moon at a time when literally the only common application of rockets was for fireworks; they weren't even reliable (in any/every sense) enough for military applications. Didn't he just have a big cannon for the space travel, not actual rockets with continuous thrust instead of a single impulse that would reduce the human crew to paste?