Robert H. Goddard

For the rest of his life, he observed October 19 as "Anniversary Day", a private commemoration of the day of his greatest inspiration.

Education and early studies

The young Goddard was a thin and frail boy, almost always in fragile health. He suffered from stomach problems, pleurisy, colds, and bronchitis, and he fell two years behind his classmates. He became a voracious reader, regularly visiting the local public library to borrow books on the physical sciences. While studying at Clark, Goddard continued working in Salisbury Labs at WPI and anecdotally caused a damaging explosion, whereupon his work was moved to the Magnetic Lab (today called Skull Tomb).

Goddard received his M.A. degree in physics from Clark University in 1910, and then stayed at Clark to complete his Ph.D. in physics in 1911. He spent another year at Clark as an honorary fellow in physics, and in 1912 he accepted a research fellowship at Princeton University's Palmer Physical Laboratory. In order to generate radio-frequency power, he invented a vacuum tube with a beam deflection that operated like a cathode-ray oscillator tube. His patent on this tube, which predated that of Lee De Forest, became central in the suit between Arthur A. Collins, whose small company made radio transmitter tubes, and AT&T and RCA over his use of vacuum tube technology. Goddard accepted only a consultant's fee from Collins when the suit was dropped. Eventually, the two big companies allowed the country's growing electronics industry to use the De Forest patents freely.

Rocket math

By 1912 he had in his spare time, using calculus, developed the mathematics which allowed him to calculate the position and velocity of a rocket in vertical flight, given the weight of the rocket and weight of the propellant and the velocity (with respect to the rocket frame) of the exhaust gases. In effect he had independently developed the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation published a decade earlier in Russia. Tsiolkovsky, however, did not account for gravity nor drag. For vertical flight from the surface of Earth Goddard included in his differential equation the effects of gravity and aerodynamic drag. Overall, 214 patents were published, some posthumously by his wife.

Early rocketry research

thumb|right|Video clips of Goddard's launches and other events in his life

In the fall of 1914 Goddard's health had improved, and he accepted a part-time position as an instructor and research fellow at Clark University. Goddard realized, however, that it would take the more efficient liquid propellants to reach space.

Later that year, Goddard designed an elaborate experiment at the Clark physics lab and proved that a rocket would perform in a vacuum such as that in space. He believed it would, but many other scientists were not yet convinced. His experiment demonstrated that a rocket's performance actually decreases under atmospheric pressure.

In September 1906 he wrote in his notebook about using the repulsion of electrically charged particles (ions) to produce thrust.

Smithsonian Institution sponsorship

By 1916, the cost of Goddard's rocket research had become too great for his modest teaching salary to bear. (Earth's atmosphere can be considered to end at altitude, where its drag effect on orbiting satellites becomes minimal.)

The Smithsonian was interested and asked Goddard to elaborate upon his initial inquiry. Goddard responded with a detailed manuscript he had already prepared, entitled A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes.

Two years later, at the insistence of Arthur G. Webster, the world-renowned head of Clark's physics department, Goddard arranged for the Smithsonian to publish the paper, A Method..., which documented his work.

Goddard's military rocket

thumb|Goddard loading a rocket in 1918

Not all of Goddard's early work was geared toward space travel. As the United States entered World War I in 1917, the country's universities began to lend their services to the war effort. Goddard believed his rocket research could be applied to many different military applications, including mobile artillery, field weapons and naval torpedoes. He made proposals to the Navy and Army. No record exists in his papers of any interest by the Navy to Goddard's inquiry. However, Army Ordnance was quite interested, and Goddard met several times with Army personnel.

The delay in the development of the bazooka and other weapons was a result of the long recovery period required from Goddard's serious bout with tuberculosis. Goddard continued to be a part-time consultant to the U.S. Government at Indian Head, Maryland, Goddard's report is regarded as one of the pioneering works of the science of rocketry, and 1750 copies were distributed worldwide. Goddard also sent a copy to individuals who requested one, until his personal supply was exhausted. Smithsonian aerospace historian Frank Winter said that this paper was "one of the key catalysts behind the international rocket movement of the 1920s and 30s." By means of this nozzle, Goddard increased the efficiency of his rocket engines from two percent to 64 percent and obtained supersonic exhaust velocities of over Mach 7.

Though most of this work dealt with the theoretical and experimental relations between propellant, rocket mass, thrust, and velocity, a final section, entitled "Calculation of minimum mass required to raise one pound to an 'infinite' altitude," discussed the possible uses of rockets, not only to reach the upper atmosphere but to escape from Earth's gravitation altogether. He determined, using an approximate method to solve his differential equation of motion for vertical flight, that a rocket with an effective exhaust velocity (see specific impulse) of 7000 feet per second and an initial weight of 602 pounds would be able to send a one-pound payload to an infinite height. Included as a thought experiment was the idea of launching a rocket to the Moon and igniting a mass of flash powder on its surface, so as to be visible through a telescope. He discussed the matter seriously, down to an estimate of the amount of powder required. Goddard's conclusion was that a rocket with starting mass of 3.21 tons could produce a flash "just visible" from Earth, assuming a final payload weight of 10.7 pounds.

Goddard eschewed publicity, because he did not have time to reply to criticism of his work, and his imaginative ideas about space travel were shared only with private groups he trusted. He did, though, publish and talk about the rocket principle and sounding rockets, since these subjects were not too "far out." In a letter to the Smithsonian, dated March 1920, he discussed: photographing the Moon and planets from rocket-powered fly-by probes, sending messages to distant civilizations on inscribed metal plates, the use of solar energy in space, and the idea of high-velocity ion propulsion. In that same letter, Goddard clearly describes the concept of the ablative heat shield, suggesting the landing apparatus be covered with "layers of a very infusible hard substance with layers of a poor heat conductor between" designed to erode in the same way as the surface of a meteor.

Publicity and criticism

The publication of Goddard's document gained him national attention from U.S. newspapers, most of it negative. Although Goddard's discussion of targeting the moon was only a small part of the work as a whole (eight lines on the next to last page of 69 pages), and was intended as an illustration of the possibilities rather than a declaration of intent, the papers sensationalized his ideas to the point of misrepresentation and ridicule. Even the Smithsonian had to abstain from publicity because of the amount of ridiculous correspondence received from the general public.

On January 12, 1920, a front-page story in The New York Times, "Believes Rocket Can Reach Moon", reported a Smithsonian press release about a "multiple-charge, high-efficiency rocket." The chief application envisaged was "the possibility of sending recording apparatus to moderate and extreme altitudes within the Earth's atmosphere", the advantage over balloon-carried instruments being ease of recovery, since "the new rocket apparatus would go straight up and come straight down." But it also mentioned a proposal "to [send] to the dark part of the new moon a sufficiently large amount of the most brilliant flash powder which, in being ignited on impact, would be plainly visible in a powerful telescope. This would be the only way of proving that the rocket had really left the attraction of the earth, as the apparatus would never come back, once it had escaped that attraction."

New York Times editorial

On January 13, 1920, the day after its front-page story about Goddard's rocket, an unsigned New York Times editorial, in a section entitled "Topics of the Times", scoffed at the proposal. The article, which bore the title "A Severe Strain on Credulity", began with apparent approval, but soon went on to cast serious doubt:

<blockquote>As a method of sending a missile to the higher, and even highest, part of the earth's atmospheric envelope, Professor Goddard's multiple-charge rocket is a practicable, and therefore promising device. Such a rocket, too, might carry self-recording instruments, to be released at the limit of its flight, and conceivable parachutes would bring them safely to the ground. It is not obvious, however, that the instruments would return to the point of departure; indeed, it is obvious that they would not, for parachutes drift exactly as balloons do.</blockquote>

The article pressed further on Goddard's proposal to launch rockets beyond the atmosphere:

<blockquote>[A]fter the rocket quits our air and really starts on its longer journey, its flight would be neither accelerated nor maintained by the explosion of the charges it then might have left. To claim that it would be is to deny a fundamental law of dynamics, and only Dr. Einstein and his chosen dozen, so few and fit, are licensed to do that. ... Of course, [Goddard] only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.</blockquote>

Thrust is however possible in a vacuum.

Aftermath

A week after the New York Times editorial, Goddard released a signed statement to the Associated Press, attempting to restore reason to what had become a sensational story:

<blockquote>Too much attention has been concentrated on the proposed flash pow[d]er experiment, and too little on the exploration of the atmosphere. ... Whatever interesting possibilities there may be of the method that has been proposed, other than the purpose for which it was intended, no one of them could be undertaken without first exploring the atmosphere.</blockquote>

In 1924, Goddard published an article, "How my speed rocket can propel itself in vacuum", in Popular Science, in which he explained the physics and gave details of the vacuum experiments he had performed to prove the theory. But, no matter how he tried to explain his results, he was not understood by the majority. After one of Goddard's experiments in 1929, a local Worcester newspaper carried the mocking headline "Moon rocket misses target by 238,799 miles."

Though the public laughed at the "moon man," his paper was read seriously by many rocketeers in America, Europe, and Russia who were stirred to build their own rockets. This work was his most important contribution to the quest to "aim for the stars."</blockquote>

First liquid-fueled flight

The rocket equation indicates that the lighter a rocket's structure is, the greater its final velocity will be, as more of its mass can consist of the propellants. Goddard strove to reduce the mass of his rockets (total mass minus propellant mass). Liquid propellants would enable the combustion chambers to be smaller and lighter. He began considering liquid propellants, including hydrogen and oxygen, as early as 1909. He knew that hydrogen and oxygen was the most efficient fuel/oxidizer combination. However, liquid hydrogen was not readily available in 1921, when he abandoned solid fuel, and he selected gasoline as the safest, cheapest fuel to handle. but it was an important demonstration that liquid fuels and oxidizers were possible propellants for larger rockets. The launch site is now a National Historic Landmark, the Goddard Rocket Launching Site.

thumb|Original launch console for launching Goddard liquid fuel rockets

Viewers familiar with more modern rocket designs may find it difficult to distinguish the rocket from its launching apparatus in the well-known picture of "Nell". The complete rocket is significantly taller than Goddard but does not include the pyramidal support structure which he is grasping. The rocket's combustion chamber is the small cylinder at the top; the nozzle is visible beneath it. The fuel tank, which is also part of the rocket, is the larger cylinder opposite Goddard's torso. The fuel tank is directly beneath the nozzle and is protected from the motor's exhaust by an asbestos cone. Asbestos-wrapped aluminum tubes connect the motor to the tanks, providing both support and fuel transport. This layout is no longer used, since the experiment showed that this was no more stable than placing the combustion chamber and nozzle at the base. By May, after a series of modifications to simplify the plumbing, the combustion chamber and nozzle were placed in the now classic position, at the lower end of the rocket. Charles Lindbergh learned of his work in a New York Times article. At the time, Lindbergh had begun to wonder what would become of aviation (even space flight) in the distant future and had settled on jet propulsion and rocket flight as a probable next step. After checking with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and being assured that Goddard was a bona fide physicist and not a crackpot, he phoned Goddard in November 1929. Upon meeting Goddard, Lindbergh was immediately impressed by his research, and Goddard was similarly impressed by the flier's interest. He discussed his work openly with Lindbergh, forming an alliance that would last for the rest of his life. While having long since become reluctant to share his ideas, Goddard showed complete openness with those few who shared his dream, and whom he felt he could trust.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin wrote that his father, Edwin Aldrin Sr. "was an early supporter of Robert Goddard." The elder Aldrin was a student of physics under Goddard at Clark, and worked with Lindbergh to obtain the help of the Guggenheims. Buzz believed that if Goddard had received military support as Wernher von Braun's team had enjoyed in Germany, American rocket technology would have developed much more rapidly in World War II.

Lack of vision in the United States

Before World War II there was a lack of vision and serious interest in the United States concerning the potential of rocketry, especially in Washington. Although the Weather Bureau was interested beginning in 1929 in Goddard's rocket for atmospheric research, the Bureau could not secure governmental funding. In 1941, Goddard tried to recruit an engineer for his team from MIT but could not find one who was interested.

Roswell, New Mexico

thumb|upright|[[Charles Lindbergh took this picture of Robert H. Goddard's rocket, when he peered down the launching tower on September 23, 1935, in Roswell, New Mexico.]]

right|thumb|Goddard towing a rocket in Roswell

With new financial backing, Goddard eventually relocated to the Eden Valley Test Site in Roswell, New Mexico, in summer of 1930, where he worked with his team of technicians in near-isolation and relative secrecy for years. He had consulted a meteorologist as to the best area to do his work, and Roswell seemed ideal. Here they would not endanger anyone, would not be bothered by the curious and would experience a more moderate climate (which was also better for Goddard's health). He remained at the university until the autumn of 1934, when funding resumed. Because of the death of the senior Daniel Guggenheim, the management of funding was taken on by his son, Harry Guggenheim.

thumb|Gyroscope installed inside Goddard's 1939 series L-C rocket

The A-4 used a simpler pendulum system for guidance, as the gyroscopic system was being repaired. On March 8, 1935, it flew up to 1,000 feet, then turned into the wind and, Goddard reported, "roared in a powerful descent across the prairie, at close to, or at, the speed of sound." On March 28, 1935, the A-5 successfully flew vertically to an altitude of (0.91 mi; 4,800 ft) using his gyroscopic guidance system. It then turned to a nearly horizontal path, flew 13,000 feet and achieved a maximum speed of 550 miles per hour. Goddard was elated because the guidance system kept the rocket on a vertical path so well. This work was plagued by trouble with chamber burn-through. In 1923, Goddard had built a regeneratively cooled engine, which circulated liquid oxygen around the outside of the combustion chamber, but he deemed the idea too complicated. (This method is commonly used in modern engines.) He then used a curtain (film) cooling method that involved spraying excess gasoline, which evaporated around the inside wall of the combustion chamber, but this scheme did not work well, and the larger rockets failed. (With refining the method has been used successfully in modern engines.) Goddard returned to a smaller design, and his L-13 reached an altitude of 2.7 kilometers (1.7 mi; 8,900 ft), the highest of any of his rockets. Weight was reduced by using thin-walled fuel tanks wound with high-tensile-strength wire. Harry Guggenheim and Charles Lindbergh arranged for (then Major) Doolittle to discuss with Goddard a special blend of gasoline. Doolittle flew himself to Roswell in October 1938 and was given a tour of Goddard's shop and a "short course" in rocketry. He then wrote a memo, including a rather detailed description of Goddard's rocket. In closing he said, "interplanetary transportation is probably a dream of the very distant future, but with the moon only a quarter of a million miles away—who knows!" In July 1941, he wrote Goddard that he was still interested in his rocket propulsion research. The Army was interested only in JATO at this point. However, Doolittle and Lindbergh were concerned about the state of rocketry in the US, and Doolittle remained in touch with Goddard. In 1956, he was appointed chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) because the previous chairman, Jerome C. Hunsaker, thought Doolittle to be more sympathetic than other scientists and engineers to the rocket, which was increasing in importance as a scientific tool as well as a weapon. He was offered the position as first administrator of NASA, but he turned it down.

Goddard's pace was slower than the Germans' because he did not have the resources they did. Simply reaching high altitudes was not his primary goal; he was trying, with a methodical approach, to perfect his liquid fuel engine and subsystems such as guidance and control so that his rocket could eventually achieve high altitudes without tumbling in the rare atmosphere, providing a stable vehicle for the experiments it would eventually carry. He had built the necessary turbopumps and was on the verge of building larger, lighter, more reliable rockets to reach extreme altitudes carrying scientific instruments when World War II intervened and changed the path of American history. He hoped to return to his experiments in Roswell after the war. but thereafter the Germans received very little information about Goddard.

The Soviet Union had a spy (name still not declassified as of 2009) in the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. In 1935, she gave them a report Goddard had written for the Navy in 1933. It contained results of tests and flights and suggestions for military uses of his rockets. The Soviets considered this to be very valuable information. It provided few design details, but gave them the direction and knowledge about Goddard's progress.

Annapolis, Maryland

Navy Lieutenant Charles F. Fischer, who had visited Goddard in Roswell earlier and gained his confidence, believed Goddard was doing valuable work and was able to convince the Bureau of Aeronautics in September 1941 that Goddard could build the JATO unit the Navy desired. While still in Roswell, and before the Navy contract took effect, Goddard began in September to apply his technology to build a variable-thrust engine to be attached to a PBY seaplane. By May 1942, he had a unit that could meet the Navy's requirements and be able to launch a heavily loaded aircraft from a short runway. In February, he received part of a PBY with bullet holes apparently acquired in the Pearl Harbor attack. Goddard wrote to Guggenheim that "I can think of nothing that would give me greater satisfaction than to have it contribute to the inevitable retaliation."

The Navy had Goddard build a pump system for Caltech's use with acid-aniline propellants. The team built a 3000-lb thrust engine using a cluster of four 750-lb thrust motors. In September 1956, the X-2 was the first plane to reach 126,000 feet altitude and in its last flight exceeded Mach 3 (3.2) before losing control and crashing. The X-2 program advanced technology in areas such as steel alloys and aerodynamics at high Mach numbers.

The German V-2

In the spring of 1945, Goddard saw a captured German V-2 ballistic missile, in the naval laboratory in Annapolis, Maryland, where he had been working under contract. The unlaunched rocket had been captured by the US Army from the Mittelwerk factory in the Harz mountains in Germany and samples began to be shipped by Special Mission V-2 on 22 May 1945.

After a thorough inspection, Goddard was convinced that the Germans had "stolen" his work. Though the design details were not exactly the same, the basic design of the V-2 was similar to one of Goddard's rockets. The V-2, however, was technically far more advanced than the most successful of the rockets designed and tested by Goddard. The Peenemünde rocket group led by Wernher von Braun may have benefited from the pre-1939 contacts to a limited extent, He once recalled that "Goddard's experiments in liquid fuel saved us years of work, and enabled us to perfect the V-2 years before it would have been possible." After World War II von Braun reviewed Goddard's patents and believed they contained enough technical information to build a large missile.

Three features developed by Goddard appeared in the V-2: (1) turbopumps were used to inject fuel into the combustion chamber; (2) gyroscopically controlled vanes in the nozzle exhaust stabilized the rocket until external vanes in the air could do so; and (3) excess alcohol was fed in around the combustion chamber walls, so that a blanket of evaporating gas protected the engine walls from the combustion heat.

The Germans had been watching Goddard's progress before the war and became convinced that large, liquid fuel rockets were feasible. General Walter Dornberger, head of the V-2 project, used the idea that they were in a race with the U.S. and that Goddard had "disappeared" (to work with the Navy) as a way to persuade Hitler to raise the priority of the V-2.

Goddard's secrecy

Goddard avoided sharing details of his work with other scientists and preferred to work alone with his technicians. Frank Malina, who was then studying rocketry at the California Institute of Technology, visited Goddard in August 1936. Goddard hesitated to discuss any of his research, other than that which had already been published in Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development. Theodore von Kármán, Malina's mentor at the time, was unhappy with Goddard's attitude and later wrote, "Naturally we at Caltech wanted as much information as we could get from Goddard for our mutual benefit. But Goddard believed in secrecy. ... The trouble with secrecy is that one can easily go in the wrong direction and never know it." However, the Aerojet Engineering Corporation, an offshoot of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech (GALCIT), filed two patent applications in Sep 1943 referencing Goddard's for the multistage rocket.

By 1939, von Kármán's GALCIT had received Army Air Corps funding to develop rockets to assist in aircraft take-off. Goddard learned of this in 1940, and openly expressed his displeasure at not being considered. Malina could not understand why the Army did not arrange for an exchange of information between Goddard and Caltech since both were under government contract at the same time. Goddard did not think he could be of that much help to Caltech because they were designing rocket engines mainly with solid fuel, while he was using liquid fuel.

Goddard was concerned with avoiding the public criticism and ridicule he had faced in the 1920s, which he believed had harmed his professional reputation. He also lacked interest in discussions with people who had less understanding of rocketry than he did,</blockquote>

Goddard spoke to professional groups, published articles and papers and patented his ideas; but while he discussed basic principles, he was unwilling to reveal the details of his designs until he had flown rockets to high altitudes and thus proven his theory.

Many authors writing about Goddard mention his secrecy, but neglect the reasons for it. Some reasons have been noted above. Much of his work was for the military and was classified.

However, Goddard's tendency to secrecy was not absolute, nor was he totally uncooperative. In 1945 GALCIT was building the WAC Corporal for the Army. But they were having trouble with their liquid propellant rocket engine's performance (timely, smooth ignition and explosions). Frank Malina went to Annapolis in February and consulted with Goddard and Stiff, and they arrived at a solution to the problem (hypergolic propellant: nitric acid and aniline), which resulted in the successful launch of the high-altitude research rocket in October 1945.

During the First and Second World Wars, Goddard offered his services, patents, and technology to the military, and made some significant contributions. Just before the Second World War several young Army officers and a few higher-ranking ones believed Goddard's research was important but were unable to generate funds for his work.

Toward the end of his life, Goddard, realizing he was no longer going to be able to make significant progress alone in his field, joined the American Rocket Society and became a director. He made plans to work in the budding US aerospace industry (with Curtiss-Wright), taking most of his team with him. a secretary in Clark University's President's office, whom he had met in 1919. She became enthusiastic about rocketry and photographed some of his work as well as aided him in his experiments and paperwork, including accounting. They enjoyed going to the movies in Roswell and participated in community organizations such as the Rotary and the Woman's Club. He painted the New Mexican scenery, sometimes with the artist Peter Hurd, and played the piano. She played bridge, while he read. Esther said Robert participated in the community and readily accepted invitations to speak to church and service groups. The couple did not have children. After his death, she sorted out Goddard's papers, and secured 131 additional patents on his work. She also filmed some of the experiments that took place across the course of Goddard's research.

Concerning Goddard's religious views, he was raised as an Episcopalian, though he was not outwardly religious. The Goddards were associated with the Episcopal church in Roswell, and he attended occasionally. He once spoke to a young people's group on the relationship of science and religion. He was buried in Hope Cemetery in his home town of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Legacy

Influence

Goddard was credited with 214 patents for his work; 131 of these were awarded after his death.
Goddard influenced many people who went on to do significant work in the U.S. space program, such as Robert Truax (USN), Milton Rosen (Naval Research Laboratory and NASA), astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell, NASA flight controller Gene Kranz, astrodynamicist Samuel Herrick (UCLA), and General Jimmy Doolittle (US Army and NACA).
Goddard received the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution in 1960, and the Congressional Gold Medal on September 16, 1959.
Esther Goddard ensured that Goddard's papers were housed in the Archives and Special Collections area of Clark University's Robert H. Goddard Library. This act influenced the historical research of Goddard's experiments. the school's mascot is titled "Rockets".

thumb|right|upright=.8|Obelisk marks the [[Goddard Rocket Launching Site]]

The Goddard Rocket Launching Site in Auburn, Massachusetts, is a National Historic Landmark. The location was formerly the Asa Ward Farm, and is now a golf course.
New Goddard prototype experimental reusable vertical launch and landing rocket from Blue Origin is named after Goddard.
The Dr. Robert H. Goddard Award, also known as the Achievement 7 Award, is an award given to cadets of the Civil Air Patrol who reach the rank of Cadet Chief Master Sergeant. The promotion and the award are always given concurrently and in unison with one another.

In popular culture

Children's author Isabel Hornibrook, in her novel Pemrose Lorry: Campfire Girl (Little, Brown and Company, 1921) claimed in the preface to have been the first to exploit Goddard's rocket as a plot device. In the last chapter, she wrote, "And never–oh! never since the history of Mother Earth and her satellite began did such a spectacular traveler start on such a flaming trip as when the hand of a Camp Fire Girl of America threw the switch and the steel explorer, twenty feet long, leaped from its platform high into the air, pointed directly for the moon, with a great inventor's mathematical precision,–trailing its two-hundred-foot, rosy trail of fire. There was not breath–not breath, even, to cry: "Watch it tear!"
In F.L.A.S.H.!, episode 10 of season 11 of the Canadian television period drama Murdoch Mysteries (January 8, 2018), Goddard is played by Andrew Robinson and is described as a rocket scientist and chief scientist for a fictional pneumatic tube public transport system in early 1900s Toronto, Canada.
Rocket, an American pale ale made by the Wormtown Brewery of Worcester, Massachusetts is named in Goddard's honor.
In the Nickelodeon (TV Channel) series Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius Jimmy's robotic dog Goddard is named after him.

Patents of interest

Goddard received 214 patents for his work, of which 131 were awarded after his death.

First to receive a U.S. patent on the idea of a multistage rocket (1914)

Bibliography

A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes- Goddard 1919

References

External links

Robert and Esther Goddard Collection | Worcester Polytechnic Institute