Search results
Robert H. Goddard. 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] By 1915 his pioneering work had dramatically improved the ...
- 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.
Britannica Quiz
Physics and Natural Law
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.
Are you a student? Get Britannica Premium for only 24.95 - a 67% discount!
Learn More
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.
Robert Goddard was awarded 214 patents for his work, 83 of which came during his lifetime. The Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, established in 1959, is named in his honor. Goddard Crater on the Moon is also named for him, as is asteroid 9252 Goddard. On September 16, 1959, the 86th Congress authorized the issuance of a gold medal in the ...
The public backlash Goddard experienced caused him to become rather reclusive. He became very apprehensive with regards to sharing his work and would often work alone in order to avoid confrontation or argument. In 1926, despite his seclusion, he launched the world’s first liquid-fuelled rocket using gasoline and liquid oxygen as propellant.
Jun 8, 2018 · The American pioneer in rocketry Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945) was one of the founders of the science of astronautics. Robert Goddard was born on Oct. 5, 1882, in Worcester, Mass., the son of Nahum Danford Goddard, a businessman, and Fannie Hoyt Goddard. From his earliest youth Goddard suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis.
Jun 18, 2024 · Robert H. Goddard died on Aug. 10, 1945. Following the rocketry pioneer’s death, his widow, Esther Goddard, championed his work. On Sept. 16, 1959, the 86th Congress authorized the issuance of a gold medal in the honor of professor Robert H. Goddard. Esther Goddard was on hand for the formal dedication of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center ...
People also ask
Why did Goddard like to work alone?
Who was Robert Goddard?
Was Robert Hutchings Goddard a team worker?
What did Dr Goddard do for a living?
Why is Goddard Space Flight Center important?
Who is Robert Hutchings Goddard?
Nor did Goddard’s reputation for working alone help his cause, nor did the unfortunate fire on the test PBY. His espousal of liquid oxygen for his rocket systems frightened off the Army and worried the Navy; rocket development during the war was concentrated on solid propellants and fuels liquid at normal temperature that could be handled at the front line.
