December 30, 1920
(NASA) – Robert Goddard conducted the first rocket test flight at his new laboratory in Roswell, New Mexico on December 30, 1930. His liquid fuel rocket reached a height of 610 meters (2,000 feet).
In 1920, Goddard published a paper that and described how to reach extreme altitudes and discussed the possibility of a rocket reaching the moon—a position for which he was ridiculed by the press.
Several copies of his paper found their way to Europe, and by 1927, the German Rocket Society was established, and the German Army began its rocket program in 1931.
Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket. Goddard successfully launched his rocket on March 16, 1926, which ushered in an era of space flight and innovation. He and his team launched 34 rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.6 mi) and speeds as fast as 885 km/h (550 mph).
Goddard’s work as both theorist and engineer anticipated many of the developments that would make spaceflight possible. He has been called the man who ushered in the Space Age: xiii Two of Goddard’s 214 patented inventions, a multi-stage rocket (1914), and a liquid-fuel rocket (1914), were important milestones toward spaceflight. His 1919 monograph A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes is considered one of the classic texts of 20th-century rocket science. Goddard successfully pioneered modern methods such as two-axis control (gyroscopes and steerable thrust) to allow rockets to control their flight effectively.
Although his work in the field was revolutionary, Goddard received little public support, moral or monetary, for his research and development work. He was a shy person, and rocket research was not considered a suitable pursuit for a physics professor. The press and other scientists ridiculed his theories of spaceflight. As a result, he became protective of his privacy and his work.
Years after his death, at the dawn of the Space Age, Goddard came to be recognized as one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry, along with Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Hermann Oberth. He not only recognized early on the potential of rockets for atmospheric research, ballistic missiles and space travel but also was the first to scientifically study, design, construct and fly the precursory rockets needed to eventually implement those ideas.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center was named in Goddard’s honor in 1959. He was also inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame and National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1966, and the International Space Hall of Fame in 1976
The post THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Robert Goddard Conducts First Rocket Test Flight 93 Years Ago appeared first on Space Coast Daily.