Robert Goddard was a renowned physicist and aerospace engineer that ushered the way into the Space Age with the invention and the successful creation of the liquid-fueled rocket.
Robert Hutchings Goddard was born on October 5, 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Goddard’s love for science sparked at a young age with the electrification of many American cities in the 1880s. As a young child, Goddard performed several experiments of his own, like trying to make himself jump higher with a battery, and causing an explosion in his household while experimenting with chemicals. In his teens, Goddard discovered a fascination for flight, mostly with balloons. After several experiments he turned his interest to space, spending ample time as a young teen just staring up at the night sky dreaming of one day even having the possibility to send people to Mars. Robert graduated from high school at South High
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But Goddard was more interested in creating a more efficient way for rockets to travel, with the poor limitations of early 20th century technology. He proposed the idea of a liquid-fuel rocket, which boasted an impressive for the time 50% efficiency, meaning half of the heat energy could be converted to kinetic energy to propel the rocket. He performed his first liquid fueled rocket test on March 16, 1926. It flew 41 feet high and 184 feet away over 2.5 seconds. From there, Goddard performed many, many more tests. He was the first person to have equipped his rockets with vanes in the engine exhaust as well as a gyroscopic control apparatus to help guide the rockets in 1932. In 1935, Goddard managed to be the first one to break the sound barrier with a rocket. In 1937, he added an engine that pivoted the tail end so that you can steer the rocket. Unfortunately, Robert Goddard was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1945, and died later that year on August 10,