Home > Robert Goddard (scientist)

Goddard was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and became interested in space even before attending Clark University and Princeton. His interest was sparked when he read H.G. Wells' science fiction classic The War of the Worlds when he was 16 years old. By 1914, he was designing rocket motors, with financial assistance from the Smithsonian Institution. By 1919, he was writing about the possibilities of moon flightThis article concerns the process of flying. For other meanings see Flight (disambig). Flight is the process of flying: either movement through the air by aerodynamically generating lift or aerostatically using buoyancy, or movement beyond Earth's atmosph.

Goddard launched the first liquid-fuelledA bipropellant rocket is a rocket that uses separate fuel and oxidizer propellants. Bipropellant systems are more efficient than monopropellant systems, but they tend to be more complicated because of the extra hardware components needed to make sure the rocket on March 16March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). There are 290 days remaining. Events 1190 Crusaders start to massacre the Jews of York, England. 1521 Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines. 1621 Samoset, a Mohegan,, 1926Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 See also 1926 in aviation 1926 in film 1926 in literature 1926 in mu at Auburn, MassachusettsAuburn is a town located in Worcester County, Massachusetts. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 15,901. History Auburn was first settled in 1714 and was officially incorporated in 1778. Geography According to the United States Censu. His journal entry of the event was notable for its laconic understatement: "The first flight with a rocket using liquid propellantA propellant is a gas, liquid or plasma used to move an object by applying a motive force. Common propellants are gasoline, jet fuel and rocket fuel. Aerosol sprays In aerosol cans, the propellant is simply a pressurized gas. If the can was simply filleds was made yesterday at Aunt Effie's farm." The rocket, which was dubbed "Nell" and about the size of a humanHuman beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. Biologically, they are classified as Homo sapiens ( Latin for knowing man , a primate species of mammal with a highly developed brain. In spiritua armThere is also an arms disambiguation page. In anatomy, the arm is the upper limb of a bipedal mammal, specifically the segment between the shoulder and the elbow. Arm may also refer to an analogous structure, such as one of the paired forelimbs of a quadr, rose just 41 feet during a 2 1/2-second flight, but it was an important demonstration that liquid fuel propellants were possible.

Goddard was suspicious of others and often worked alone, which limited the ripple effect from his work. His unsociability was a result of the harsh criticism that he received from both other scientists and the media. After one of his experiments in 1929, a local Worcester newspaper carried the headline "Moon rocket misses target by 238,799 1/2 miles." Most notable however was the, retrospectively funny, response of The New York Times to Goddard's landmark paper, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." The Times lambasted his research because "everybody knows" rockets won't travel in the vacuum of space, where there's nothing to push against. Goddard, the article claimed, "seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."

Robert Goddard, bundled against the cold New England weather of March 16, 1926, holds the launching frame of his most notable invention — the first liquid-fueled rocket.

Eventually Goddard headed out to Roswell, New Mexico—long before the area became the center of the UFO craze—where he worked in near isolation for decades. Though he brought his work in rocketry to the attention of the United States Army, he was rebuffed, as the Army largely failed to grasp the military application (except for the bazooka, a prototype of which he had demonstrated in November, 1918, shortly before the end of World War I). Ironically, it was Nazi Germany that took the most interest in his research. Wernher von Braun did most of his work from Goddard's theories. The V-2 was extremely similar to Goddard's designs.

In 1969, just days before the Apollo 11 moon landing, the New York Times retracted the editorial it had published 49 years before on Goddard. "Further investigation and experimentation," said the paper, "have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th century, and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error."

Goddard was awarded 214 patents for his work, most of them coming after his death in 1945. The Goddard Space Flight Center, which was established in 1959, is named in his honor.

See also: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Hermann Oberth, spacecraft propulsion