Robert H. Goddard
Born October 5, 1882 (Worcester, Massachusetts)
Died August 10, 1945 (Annapolis, Maryland)
American physicist, rocket pioneer
Robert Goddard is credited with launching the world's first liquid-propellant rocket. (A liquid-propellant rocket is fired with liquid fuel. Prior to the twentieth century rockets were fired with gun powder, known as solid fuel.) For centuries, scientists had realized that rockets were the only way to reach distant space. Among the important modern theorists was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935; see entry), a Russian teacher who promoted spaceflight and wrote books on the subject. Goddard was the first to succeed in firing a rocket a significant distance, however, and his research produced a technological revolution. By the end of his life he held more than two hundred patents for such inventions as turbo-fed rockets powered by gas generators, automatic rocket launching and guidance controls, and optical-telescope tracking methods.
At the end of World War II (1939–45) German scientists, headed by Wernher von Braun (1912–1977; see entry), used Goddard's innovations to build V-2 rockets. Germany used the V-2 against the Allies (the military forces of Great Britain, the United States, and several other countries) but with limited
effectiveness. After the war Goddard's innovations formed the basis of missile and space programs in the United States and in the former Soviet Union.
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