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Robert Hutchings Goddard ( October 5 , 1882 – August 10 , 1945 )From 1930 to 1935 he launched rockets that attained speeds of up to 550 miles an hour and heights of the pioneers of modern Rocket ry. Though his work in the field was revolutionary, he was often ridiculed for his theories. 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. 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." {Link without Title} For the rest of his life he observed October 19 as "Anniversary Day", a private celebration. EDUCATION AND EARLY WORK After receiving 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 Motor s, with financial assistance from the Smithsonian Institution . By 1919 , he was writing about the possibilities of Moon Flight . weather of March 16 , 1926 , holds the launching frame of his most notable invention — the first liquid-fueled rocket.]] Goddard launched the first s was made yesterday at Aunt Effie's farm." The rocket, which was dubbed "Nell", 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. Viewers familiar with more modern rocket designs may find it difficult, on viewing the well-known picture of "Nell", to distinguish the rocket from its launching apparatus. The complete rocket is significantly taller than Goddard, but does not include the pyramidal support structure which he grasps. The rocket's combustion chamber is the small cylinder at the top; the Nozzle is visible beneath it. The fuel tank, which is also part of the rocket, is the larger cylinder opposite Goddard's torso. The fuel tank is directly beneath the nozzle, and is protected from the motor's exhaust by an Asbestos cone. Asbestos-wrapped aluminum tubes connect the motor to the tanks, providing both support and fuel transport. {Link without Title} Improved understanding of rocket aerodynamics, and the availability of more sophisticated control systems, rendered this design—in which a motor at the top pulls the rocket—obsolete, supplanted by the now familiar design in which the motor is located at the bottom and pushes the rocket from behind. 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 . ''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." 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 {Link without Title} 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." The next day, an unsigned NY 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 {Link without Title} 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 New York Times published a "correction" the day after the launch of Apollo 11 . ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO took this picture of Robert H. Goddard's rocket, as he peered down the launching tower on Sept. 23, 1935, in Roswell, New Mexico.]] With backing from Financier / Philanthropist Harry Guggenheim , Goddard eventually 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. Ironically, it was , 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" {Link without Title} . 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. 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. 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 . LEGACY On 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 Patent s for his work, most of them coming after his death. The Goddard Space Flight Center , established in 1959 , is named in his honor. Goddard Crater , on the Moon , is also named in his honor. His hometown of Worcester established the Goddard School of Science and Technology, an elementary school, in 1992 . The Goddard Library at Clark University is named in his honor. The Chemical Engineering department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is housed in Goddard Hall, which is name in his honor. In 1967 Robert H. Goddard High School (9-12) was built in Roswell, NM. The school's mascot is appropriately titled "Rockets." Alma Mater: We honor you dear Goddard High School- Proud your name shall ever be- As the future passes by there'll be rockets in the sky- With the fame of your name for all to see- Your colors blue and white will illuminate the night- And as the years go by- Our hearts will ever faithful be to dear old Goddard High. MEDIA
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HONORS Has a town, a middle school and a high school named after him, all in Kansas.
Has one animated character that is named after him-- Goddard , Jimmy Neutron 's Robot dog QUOTATIONS
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