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Daniel Guggenheim Medal (1964) Signature. Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) [1] was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which was successfully launched on March 16, 1926. [2]
- Overview
- Early life and training
- Research in Massachusetts
- Experiments at Roswell
Robert Goddard, (born October 5, 1882, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.—died August 10, 1945, Baltimore, Maryland), American professor and inventor generally acknowledged to be the father of modern rocketry. He published his classic treatise, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, in 1919.
Goddard was the only child of a bookkeeper, salesman, and machine-shop owner of modest means. The boy had a genteel upbringing and in early youth felt the excitement of the post-Civil War Industrial Revolution when Worcester factories were producing machinery and goods for the burgeoning country. From childhood on he displayed great curiosity about physical phenomena and a bent toward inventiveness. He read in physics and mechanics and dreamed of great inventions.
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In 1898 young Goddard’s imagination was fired by the H.G. Wells space-fiction novel War of the Worlds, then serialized in the Boston Post. Shortly thereafter, as he recounted, he actually dreamed of constructing a workable space-flight machine. On October 19, 1899, a day that became his “Anniversary Day,” he climbed a cherry tree in his backyard and “imagined how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars…when I descended the tree,” he wrote in his diary, “existence at last seemed very purposive.”
In 1908 Goddard began a long association with Clark University, Worcester, where he earned his doctorate, taught physics, and carried out rocket experiments. In his small laboratory there, he was the first to prove that thrust and consequent propulsion can take place in a vacuum, needing no air to push against. He was the first to explore mathematically the ratios of energy and thrust per weight of various fuels, including liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. He was also the first to develop a rocket motor using liquid fuels (liquid oxygen and gasoline), as used in the German V-2 rocket weapon 15 years later. In a small structure adjoining his laboratory, a liquid-propelled rocket in a static test in 1925 “operated satisfactorily and lifted its own weight,” he wrote. On March 16, 1926, the world’s first flight of a liquid-propelled rocket engine took place on his Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, achieving a brief lift-off.
As is frequently the case with scientific theory and invention, developments proceeded in various parts of the world. In achieving lift-off of his small but sophisticated rocket engine, Goddard carried his experiments further than did the Russian and German space pioneers of the day. While Goddard was engaged in building models of a space-bound vehicle, he was unaware that an obscure schoolteacher in a remote village of Russia was equally fascinated by the potential for space flight. In 1903 Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky wrote “Investigations of Space by Means of Rockets,” which many years later was hailed by the Soviet Union as the forerunner of space flight. The other member of the pioneer space trio—Hermann Oberth of Germany—published his space–flight treatise, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen, in 1923, four years after the appearance of Goddard’s early monograph.
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In the course of his experiments there he became the first to shoot a liquid-fuel rocket faster than the speed of sound (1935). He obtained the first patents of a steering apparatus for the rocket machine and of the use of “step rockets” to gain great altitudes. He also developed the first pumps suitable for rocket fuels, self-cooling rocket motors, and other components of an engine designed to carry man to outer space. Furthermore, his experiments and calculations took place at a time when any news of his work drew from the press and the public high amusement that “Moony” Goddard could take seriously the possibility of travel beyond Earth. His small rockets, early prototypes of the modern Moon thrusters, achieved altitudes of up to 1.6 km (1 mile) above the prairie.
During World War II Goddard offered his work to the military, but lack of interest in rocket development led to his closing down the Roswell establishment and participating in the war effort through a small Navy contract for work at Annapolis, Maryland, on the development of a jet-thrust booster for seaplane takeoff. Lindbergh and the industrialist and philanthropist Harry F. Guggenheim remained staunch advocates of the Worcester inventor and the feasibility of space exploration.
Nov 3, 2023 · Learn about the life and achievements of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocket propulsion and the first to launch a liquid-fueled rocket in 1926. Discover how he overcame challenges, received patents, and influenced the development of space exploration.
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Learn about the life and achievements of Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry, who received support from the Smithsonian Institution for his experiments. Explore his letters, patents, reports, and the first liquid-propellant rocket test in 1926.
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Feb 25, 2013 · Robert H. Goddard, the American father of modern rocketry, built and tested the world's first liquid-fuel rocket in 1926. His achievement is considered as significant as the Wright Brothers'...
Mar 16, 2016 · Learn about the life and achievements of Robert H. Goddard, who launched the world's first liquid-fuel rocket in 1926. Discover how his work influenced science-fiction, space exploration, and the V-2 rocket.
Apr 19, 2023 · Learn about the life and achievements of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocket propulsion. Explore his inventions, experiments, and challenges in the field of rocketry.
