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.

"I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended, for existence at last seemed very purposive."

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. Goddard's influence on rocket science may have been even greater if he had not worked alone and if he had been more willing to publish the results of his research.

Climbs cherry tree, dreams about Mars

Robert Hutchings Goddard was born on October 5, 1882, in Worcester, Massachusetts. During his early childhood his family moved to Boston, where his father, Nahum Danford Goddard, became part-owner of a machine shop. Robert's mother, Fannie Louise Hoyt Goddard, suffered from tuberculosis, a severe lung disease that kept her bedridden. Nahum and Fannie Goddard had a second son who died in infancy. Thin and frail as a boy, Robert was frequently ill and he missed school so often that he fell years behind in his education. Spending most of his days at home alone, he entertained himself by playing with kites, slingshots, and rifles. Thus began his lifelong interest in flying projectiles, objects that are shot into the air by force.

In 1898, after Fannie Goddard was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the family moved back to Worcester. Around this time Goddard, who was now sixteen years old, discovered science fiction when he read War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1866–1946; see entry). This classic tale describes an invasion of Earth by aliens from the planet Mars. The following year Goddard had a life-changing experience. According to biographical accounts, he was doing yardwork one day and needed to trim a cherry tree behind his house. Climbing the tree, he gazed out into a nearby meadow and began daydreaming about a spaceship that could go to Mars. This moment gave him such a sense of purpose that he never forgot the date—October 19, 1899. He later wrote in his autobiography, "I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended, for existence at last seemed very purposive." For the rest of his life he recorded October 19 as "anniversary day" in his diary, and he revisited the tree on that date whenever he was in Worcester.

Goddard's experience in the cherry tree compelled him to excel in math and physics. Up to this point, however, his formal education had been deficient, especially in algebra, because of his illnesses. So in 1899, at age seventeen, Goddard entered Worcester South High as a sophomore. When he graduated in 1904, he ranked at the top of his class and, at twenty-one, had the distinction of being the oldest graduate in the history of the school. A few months later he enrolled at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a small college where he majored in physics. By his senior year he was experimenting with rockets in the small basement laboratory at the college. At that time the only rockets available were fired with powder ignited by a flame, so they were little more than fireworks. Goddard envisioned developing a manned rocket (one that carries a person). After testing the amount of energy released by a powder rocket, he concluded that he needed to find a more powerful source of propulsion (a force that causes forward motion).

In 1908 Goddard earned a bachelor's degree from Worcester Polytechnic. Shortly after being hired as a physics instructor at the college, he began graduate studies at nearby Clark University. He received a doctorate from Clark in 1911, then became a research instructor in physics at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. When Goddard fell dangerously ill in 1913 he was, like his mother, diagnosed with tuberculosis. Initially given only two weeks to live, he recovered sufficiently the following year to return to Clark as a physics instructor. Promoted to assistant professor in 1915, he would remain at Clark throughout most of his academic career, except for leaves of absence to pursue rocket research. Goddard was eventually named head of the physics department and director of the physical laboratories, becoming a full professor in 1934. In 1924 he married Esther Christine Kisk, the secretary to the president of Clark. Although the couple had no children, they were devoted to one another and to Goddard's rocket research. Esther became his assistant, keeping notes and photographic records of his work.

Invents two-stage rocket

In 1914 Goddard obtained a patent for a two-stage powder rocket. A two-stage rocket fires twice—first to begin motion and again to keep moving or to move faster. He later received a patent for a rocket that burned a mixture of gasoline and liquid nitrous oxide (a colorless gas; also called laughing gas). Although Goddard knew that liquid propellants were more effective, they were difficult to obtain. He therefore continued experiments with smokeless powder. Goddard eventually achieved higher rates of energy efficiency and exhaust power than previous rockets had exhibited. In 1917, after the United States had entered World War I (1914–18), Goddard wrote to the Smithsonian Institution, suggesting the possible military application of his rocket. Convinced of Goddard's vision, the Smithsonian asked the U.S. Department of War to contribute up to fifty thousand dollars—a considerable amount of money in those days—toward his research. Soon he had his own well-equipped laboratory and shop at Clark, with seven men working for him full-time.

When Goddard relocated his shop to Pasadena, California, in 1918 he and his team had already developed two military rocket launchers. The same year, at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, Goddard demonstrated his launcher, which could propel a rocket through a hand-held tube. Intended as a portable weapon for foot soldiers, it was the first bazooka (a light weapon that launches armor-piercing rockets and is fired from the shoulder). Military observers were impressed with Goddard's invention, and they requested immediate production. The launcher was never used in World War I combat, however, because hostilities ended five days after the demonstration.

After the war Goddard returned to Clark, where he taught physics and continued his research on high-altitude rockets. Meanwhile, the Smithsonian published "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," his paper on sending rockets into space. Unfortunately, reaction to the paper was shaped by a Smithsonian press release that emphasized a point Goddard had not intended to be the focus of his work. Specifically, the press release concentrated on his method of proving that a rocket had reached a high altitude. To do so, Goddard suggested sending a small quantity of flash powder on a rocket to the dark side of the Moon. He theorized that once the rocket had arrived at its destination, the powder would be ignited and the flash of light could be viewed from Earth through telescopes. Playing up the idea of a "Moon rocket," the press completely ignored the rest of his theory. In fact, some even called Goddard "Moon Man." He had always been reluctant to publicize his work—in fact, the chairman of the Clark physics department had pressured him into publishing the paper—so he became even more secretive about his theories in the future.

Starts rocket-science center

Goddard continued his rocket research, switching to liquid propellants in 1921. Five years later, on March 16, 1926, he launched the world's first liquid-propellant rocket from a hill in Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket traveled 184 feet (56 meters) in 2.5 seconds. Still wary of publicity, he did not

announce his success for several months. In 1930 Goddard received a fifty-thousand-dollar grant from philanthropist Daniel Guggenheim (1856–1930). (A philanthropist donates money to help others.) Taking a leave of absence from Clark University, he moved with his wife and a few technical assistants to a rented farmhouse near Roswell, New Mexico. Goddard's laboratory eventually became the world center of rocket science.

Hundreds of tests were performed and forty-eight launches were attempted at a site in the desert. The rockets grew progressively larger and more sophisticated, approaching 22 feet (6.7 meters) in length and weighing up to one-quarter ton. Goddard invented and patented a large number of innovations, including a guidance system controlled by a gyroscope (a wheel or disk that spins and rotates at the same time), which permitted a rocket to "correct" its path during flight. The greatest height one of his rockets reached was estimated at 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,438 to 2,743 meters) on March 26, 1937. This was considerably short of the 100 to 200 miles (161 to 322 kilometers) of altitude he had originally expected to achieve.

In 1941 Goddard returned to defense-related rocket research. The following year he moved his crew of assistants to the Naval Engineering Experimental Station in Annapolis, Maryland. They worked on various devices, including a rocket motor that became the basis for the first aircraft in America to use an engine operated with a throttle. Like the bazooka, this was an important advance. Despite his technical achievements, Goddard's career remained somewhat flawed by his failure to reach the extreme altitudes he sought, and by his secretive nature. In 1936 he did publish another paper, titled "Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development," but it provided little useful information to other scientists.

WAC Corporal Surpasses Goddard Rockets

Robert Goddard was extremely reluctant to publicize the results of his experiments. This unwillingness to share information eventually damaged his career, because scientific progress depends to a great degree on the free exchange of ideas and achievement. In 1936 Goddard published a paper titled "Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development"—only the second, and last, paper he published in his lifetime—but it did not provide useful information to other scientists. For the most part, rocket researchers had to develop their own models of Goddard's innovations because they lacked a detailed knowledge of his pioneering inventions. This was notably the case with Frank J. Malina (1912–1981) and his rocket team, who worked at a laboratory, which eventually would become the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in southern California. This group developed solid-propellant rocket technology that was important for later missile technology. On October 11, 1945, the Malina team succeeded in launching a rocket, named the WAC Corporal, to an altitude of some 230,000 feet (7,010 meters)—far higher than any of Goddard's rockets had ever reached.

Honored for achievements

Goddard died on August 10, 1945, of throat cancer, which had been diagnosed only two months earlier. His importance to the United States is shown by the numerous memorials to his work. Many streets, buildings, and awards were named in his honor, perhaps the most significant being the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center. It was dedicated on March 16, 1961, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the first flight of Goddard's liquid-propellant rocket. On that occasion Esther Goddard accepted a Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of her deceased husband. Nine years later Clark University named its new library after Goddard. Since 1958, the National Space Club in Washington, D.C., has awarded a Goddard Memorial Trophy for achievement in missiles, rocketry, and space flight. In 1960 Goddard became the ninth recipient of the Langley Gold Medal, an honor awarded only a few times since 1910 by the Smithsonian Institution for excellence in aviation.

For More Information

Books

Goddard, Robert H. The Autobiography of Robert Hutchings Goddard, Father of the Space Age; Early Years to 1927. Worcester, MA: A. J. St. Onge, 1966.

Goddard, Robert H. Rockets. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002.

Lehman, Milton. Robert H. Goddard: Pioneer of Space Research. New York: Da Capo, 1988.

Winter, Frank H. Rockets into Space. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

Periodicals

Crouch, Tom D. "Reaching Toward Space: His 1935 Rocket Was a Technological Tour de Force, But Robert H. Goddard Hid It from History." Smithsonian (February 2001): p. 38.

Goddard, Robert H. "Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development." Smithsonian (1936).

Goddard, Robert H. "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." Smithsonian (1919).

Web Sites

"Robert Goddard (1882–1945)." About.com.http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blgoddard.htm (accessed on July 21, 2004).

"Robert Goddard and His Rockets." NASA.http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sgoddard.htm (accessed on June 29, 2004).

"Robert H. Goddard: American Rocket Pioneer." NASA.http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/service/gallery/fact_sheets/general/goddard/goddard.htm (accessed on June 29, 2004).