Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American Professor, physicist and inventor.
He is credited with creating and building the world’s first liquid fueled rocket which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926.
Robert Hutchings Goddard was born October 5th 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts, to Nahum Danford Goddard and Fannie Louise Hoyt.
Robert Goddard was their only child to survive; a younger son Richard Henry was born with a spinal deformity and died before his first birthday.
He married Esther Christine Kisk in June 21 1924, She filmed many of Goddard’s rocket launches.
The Cherry tree dream was a significant turning point in Goddard’s life.
On October 19, 1899. The 17 year old Goddard climbed a cherry tree to cut of the dead branches. As he gazed at the sky a vision came to him that would determine the whole course of his life.
"It was one of the quiet, colorful afternoons of sheer beauty which we have in October in New England, and as I looked toward the fields at the east, I imagined 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. I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended, for existence at last seemed very purposive."
The liquid fuelled rocket
Goddard began experimenting with liquid oxygen and liquid fueled rockets in September 1921 and tested the first liquid fueled engine in November 1923.
Goddard’s liquid fueled rocket would have two lines running into its combustion chamber, one feeding fuel the other feeding oxygen except both the lines carried liquids not gases.
Goddard launched the first liquid fueled rocket on march 16, 1926, in Auburn Massachusetts.
The rocket burned for 20 seconds before getting sufficient thrust, it reached a height of 41 feet and reached speeds up to 60 mph.
Some Contributions:
Explored the practicality of using