Robert Goddard

Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was one of the pioneers of modern rocketry. Though his work in the field was revolutionary, he was often ridiculed for his theories, which were ahead of their time. He received little recognition during his own lifetime, but would eventually come to be called one of the "fathers of modern rocketry" for his life's work. Download high resolution version (460x602, 195 KB)Robert Goddard, from NASA, not under copyright Gotten from [1] File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (460x602, 195 KB)Robert Goddard, from NASA, not under copyright Gotten from [1] File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... October 5 is the 278th day of the year (279th in Leap years). ... 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... A Redstone rocket, part of the Mercury program A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust gas from within a rocket engine. ... The following alphabetical lists includes men and women commonly known as the father or mother of something. ...

Early life and inspiration

Goddard was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He became interested in space when he read H.G. Wells's science fiction classic The War of the Worlds when he was 16 years old. His dedication to pursuing rocketry became fixed on October 19, 1899. While climbing a cherry tree to cut off dead limbs, he imagined, as he later wrote, "how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet." [1] For the rest of his life he observed October 19 as "Anniversary Day", a private holiday. Nickname: The Heart of the Commonwealth, The City of the Seven Hills, Wormtown, Woo-town, Wortown (war-town), The City of Diners Motto: Official website: www. ... H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. ... Herbert George Wells (Jeff Wayne version) Martian tripod / fighting-machine. ... October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Education and early work

 his B.S. degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1908, he was a Fellow in Physics at Clark University, receiving his A.M. in 1910 and his Ph.D. in 1911. By 1914, he was designing rocket motors, with financial assistance from the Smithsonian Institution. By 1919, he was writing about the possibilities of Moon flight. 

Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926 at Auburn, Massachusetts. His journal entry of the event was notable for its laconic understatement: "The first flight with a rocket using liquid propellants was made yesterday at Aunt Effie's farm." The rocket, which was dubbed "Nell" and about the size of a human arm, rose just 41 feet during a 2.5-second flight that ended in a cabbage field, but it was an important demonstration that liquid-fuel propellants were possible. A Bachelor of Science (B.S., B.Sc. ... For other Worcester Colleges, see Worcester College (disambiguation). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. ... Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States, is a private teaching and research institution founded in 1887. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... -1... Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... A motor is a device that converts energy into mechanical power, and is often synonymous with engine. ... The Smithsonian Institution Building or Castle on the National Mall serves as the Institutions headquarters. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... Flight is the process of flying: either movement through the air by aerodynamically generating lift or aerostatically using buoyancy, or movement beyond earths atmosphere by spacecraft. ... F-1 rocket engine (The kind used by the Saturn V.) A bipropellant rocket is a rocket that uses separate liquid fuel and oxidizer propellants. ... March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Auburn is a town located in Worcester County, Massachusetts. ... A propellant is a material that is used to move an object by applying a motive force. ... Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu(extinct) Homo sapiens sapiens Homo (genus). ... ARM may stand for: Most likely: ARM Ltd (originally Advanced RISC Machines) ARM architecture CPU design or one of its derivatives developed by ARM Ltd (originally called The Acorn RISC Machine) Adjustable rate mortgage Annotated Reference Manual (C++) Artificial rupture of membranes (see amniotic sac) the ISO 3166-1 3...

BUT Not all of Goddard's early work was geared towards space travel. He developed the basic idea of the bazooka and, using a music rack for a launcher, demonstrated the weapon at Aberdeen Proving Ground two days before the Armistice that ended World War I. Another Clark University researcher continued Goddard's work on the bazooka, leading to the weapon used in World War II. The bazooka weapon was one of the first anti-tank weapons based on the HEAT shell to enter service, used by the United States Armed Forces in World War II. It was nicknamed bazooka from a vague resemblance to the musical instrument of the same name (see: bazooka (instrument)). In... Aberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army proving ground located in Harford County, Maryland. ... A white flag is traditionally used to represent a truce. ... Combatants Entente Powers Central Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties > 5 million military deaths > 3 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War I, also known as the First World War and (before 1939) the Great War, the War of the Nations, War to End All Wars was a world... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII or World War Two), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the...

New York Times criticism

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 the media and from other scientists, who doubted the viability of rocket travel in space. After one of his experiments in 1929, a local Worcester newspaper carried the headline "Moon rocket misses target by 238,799 1/2 miles."-1...

On January 12, 1920 a front-page story in The New York Times, "Believes Rocket Can Reach Moon," reported a Smithsonian press release about a "multiple charge high efficiency rocket." The chief application seen was "the possibility of sending recording apparatus to moderate and extreme altitudes within the earth's atmosphere," the advantage over balloon-carried instruments being ease of recovery since "the new rocket apparatus would go straight up and come straight down." But it also mentioned a proposal "to [send] to the dark part of the new moon a sufficiently amount of the most brilliant flash powder which, in being ignited on impact, would be plainly visible in a powerful telescope. This would be the only way of proving that the rocket had really left the attraction of the earth as the apparatus would never come back." January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. ...

The next day, an unsigned Times editorial delighted in heaping scorn on the proposal. The editorial writer attacked the instrumentation application by questioning whether "the instruments would return to the point of departure... for parachutes drift just as balloons do. And the rocket, or what was left of it after the last explosion, would need to be aimed with amazing skill, and in a dead calm, to fall on the spot whence it started. But that is a slight inconvenience... though it might be serious enough from the [standpoint] of the always innocent bystander... a few thousand yards from the firing line."

The weight of scorn was, however, reserved for the lunar proposal: "after the rocket quits our air and really starts on its longer journey it will neither be accelerated nor maintained by the explosion of the charges it then might have left. To claim that it would be is to deny a fundamental law of dynamics, and only Dr. Einstein and his chosen dozen, so few and fit, are licensed to do that." It expressed disbelief that Professor Goddard actually "does not know of the relation of action to reaction, and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react" and even talked of "such things as intentional mistakes or oversights." Goddard, the Times insisted, apparently suggesting bad faith, "only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." The Times published a "correction" the day after the launch of Apollo 11. Apollo 11 was an American space mission, part of the Apollo program and the first manned mission to land on the Moon. ...

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.

Download high resolution version (512x628, 229 KB)First Flight of a Liquid Propellant Rocket Full Description Dr. Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen-gasoline bipropellant rocket in the frame from which it was fired on March 16, 1926, at Auburn, Massachusetts. ... Download high resolution version (512x628, 229 KB)First Flight of a Liquid Propellant Rocket Full Description Dr. Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen-gasoline bipropellant rocket in the frame from which it was fired on March 16, 1926, at Auburn, Massachusetts. ... First Flag of New England, 1686-c. ... March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Roswell, New Mexico

Eventually Goddard relocated to Roswell, New Mexico, long before the area became the center of the UFO craze; where he worked in near isolation for decades, and where a high school was later named after him. 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 of rockets. Nickname: All America City Motto: Official website: City of Roswell Location Location in the state of New Mexico. ... A UFO or Unidentified Flying Object is simply defined as any object or optical phenomenon observed in the sky which cannot be identified, even after being thoroughly investigated by qualified people. ... US Army Seal HHC, US Army Distinctive Unit Insignia The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces that has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ...

Ironically, it was Nazi Germany that took the most interest in his research. Wernher von Braun relied on Goddard's plans when he developed the V-2 rockets during World War II [2]. Before 1939, German scientists would occasionally even contact Goddard directly with technical questions. In 1963, von Braun, reflecting on the history of rocketry, said of Goddard: "His rockets ... may have been rather crude by present-day standards, but they blazed the trail and incorporated many features used in our most modern rockets and space vehicles" [3]. Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Wernher von Braun stands at his desk in the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress. ... German test launch. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII or World War Two), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Goddard was the center of a famous espionage operation involving the German Intelligence Agency, Abwehr and an operative called Nikolaus Ritter. As the head of the agency's U.S. operations, Ritter recruited a source who infiltrated the circle around Goddard, leaking his discoveries to the Germans'. The Abwehr was a German intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944. ...

After his offer to develop rockets for the Army was declined, Goddard temporarily gave up his preferred field to work on experimental aircraft for the U.S. Navy. After the war ended, Goddard was able to inspect captured German V-2s, many components of which he recognized. However, Goddard would not design any more rockets of his own. The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ...

Death

He learned he had throat cancer in 1945 and died that year on August 10 in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the day after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. He was buried in Hope Cemetery in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts. 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Motto: The Greatest City in America (formerly The City That Reads; BELIEVE is not the official motto but rather a specific campaign) Nickname: Charm City Mob Town B-more Map Location in Maryland Political Statistics Founded 30 July 1729 Incorporated 1797 County Independent city Borough {{{borough}}} Parrish {{{parrish}}} Mayor Martin... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... Megane-bashi, the Eyeglasses Bridge Nagasaki (長崎市; -shi) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ... Nickname: The Heart of the Commonwealth, The City of the Seven Hills, Wormtown, Woo-town, Wortown (war-town), The City of Diners Motto: Official website: www. ...

Robert Goddard, being honored on a U.S. airmail stamp

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Legacy

On July 17, 1969—the day after the launch of Apollo 11— the New York Times published a short item under the headline "A Correction," summarizing its 1920 editorial mocking Goddard, and concluding: "Further investigation and experimentation 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." July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ... Apollo 11 was an American space mission, part of the Apollo program and the first manned mission to land on the Moon. ... Sir Isaac Newton, PRS, (4 January [O.S. 25 December 1642] 1643 – 31 March [O.S. 20 March] 1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, inventor and natural philosopher who is regarded by many as the most influential scientist in history. ...

Goddard was awarded 214 patents for his work, most of them coming after his death. The Goddard Space Flight Center, established in 1959, is named in his honor. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and... Aerial view of Goddard Space Flight Center. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

His hometown of Worcester established the Goddard School of Science and Technology, an elementary school, in 1992.

Media

Robert Goddard footage ( info) Video clips of Goddard's launches and other events in his life. (7.12 MB, ogg/Theora format). Problems seeing the videos? Media help.

Image File history File links Image:FilmRoll-small. ... Robert Goddard footage. ... A megabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to approximately one million bytes. ... OGG can refer to several items: Ogg was the name of a fictional character on the animated TV show Cro, see: Ogg Ogg is a multimedia bitstream container, used for audio and video files, especially Vorbis audio files. ... Theora is a video codec being developed by the Xiph. ...

See also

• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
• Hermann Oberth
• spacecraft propulsion
• Pedro Paulet

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (Konstanty Ciołkowski), (Константин Эдуардович Циолковский; September 5, 1857 new style – September 19, 1935) was a Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of cosmonautics who spent most of his life in a log-house at the outskirts of the Russian town of Kaluga. ... Oberth (in front) with fellow ABMA employees Hermann Julius Oberth (June 25, 1894 - December 28, 1989) was a German physicist and one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics. ... A remote camera captures a close-up view of a Space Shuttle Main Engine during a test firing at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi Spacecraft propulsion is used to change the velocity of spacecraft and artificial satellites, or in short, to provide delta-v. ... The Peruvian Pedro Paulet, was in 1895 the first person to build a liquid-fuelled rocket engine. ...

Honors

Has a town, one high school and a middle school named after him in Kansas. http://www.goddardusd.com http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=Goddard,+KS http://www.goddardkansas.us

Quotations

• "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." (From his high school graduation oration, "On Taking Things for Granted", June 1904)

• "On the afternoon of October 19, 1899, I climbed a tall cherry tree and, armed with a saw which I still have, and a hatchet, started to trim the dead limbs from the cherry tree. It was one of the quiet, colorful afternoons of sheer beauty which we have in October in New England, and as I looked towards the fields at the east, I imagined how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars. I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended for existence at last seemed very purposive." (Written later, in an autobiographical sketch)

• "Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace." (His response to the New York Times, 1920)

High school - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Look up June in Wiktionary, the free dictionary June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with a length of 30 days The month is named after the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter and equivalent to the Greek goddess Hera. ... 1904 (MCMIV) is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ...

Timeline

• 1882 Birth in Worcester, Massachusetts
• 1900 US Census living with his grandmother
• 1908 Graduation from Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• 1919 A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes published
• 1920 Report in the New York Times on January 12th
• 1924 Marriage to Esther Christine Kisk on June 21st
• 1926 First rocket launched from Auburn, Massachusetts on March 26th
• 1945 Death
• 1969 Apology in the New York Times on July 17th

Nickname: The Heart of the Commonwealth, The City of the Seven Hills, Wormtown, Woo-town, Wortown (war-town), The City of Diners Motto: Official website: www. ... For other Worcester Colleges, see Worcester College (disambiguation). ... Auburn is a town located in Worcester County, Massachusetts. ...

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Robert Goddard

• TIME 100: The Most Important People of the Century (March 29, 1999)."Robert Goddard".
• Dr. Robert H. Goddard Archives from Clark University
• NASA.Robert H. Goddard: American Rocket Pioneer. Retrieved May 1, 2005.
• FAQ on Goddard