The Enigma of Robert H. Goddard

modern rocketry and as a man who, because of his aloofness, had meager influence on contemporaries.' As these conflicting views suggest, despite the rather extensive literature on this important rocket pioneer he remains something of a mystery. The aim of this article is not to decide which view is correct. Both are valid as far as they go. As the first person known to have launched a liquid-propellant rocket (in 1926), Goddard deserves, arguably, to be acknowledged as in some sense the progenitor of modern rocketry. Yet, as a loner who avoided publicity and remained highly secretive about most of the technical details of his liquid-propellant rockets, he failed to have more than an inspirational influence on most specific developments in modern rocketry. This is so even though he anticipated a great many of these developments in the patented components of his rockets.2 Clearly, Goddard was a highly gifted man who achieved numerous significant firsts in rocket development. Yet he failed to reach the goal he set for himself-to send a rocket to extremely high altitudes. Given his abilities, why did Goddard fail to accomplish that goal, and why did he remain so secretive and thus also fail to influence future

Aeronautics · Political science · Publicity · Rocket (weapon) · Space (punctuation) · Engineering · History · History and Developments in Astronomy · Law · Philosophy · Rocket and propulsion systems research · Space exploration and regulation · Space Exploration and Technology

• Deep Impact

  Asif A Siddiqi, Asif Siddiqi•History and Technology•2004

  Add to list