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Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American
engineer,
professor,
physicist, and
inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first
liquid-fueled rocket.
Goddard successfully launched his model on March 16, 1926, ushering in
an era of space flight and innovation. He and his team launched 34
rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.6 mi) and speeds as fast as 885 km/h (550 mph).
Goddard's work as both theorist and engineer anticipated many of the developments that were to make spaceflight possible. He has been called the man who ushered in the
Space Age.
Two of Goddard's 214 patented inventions—a multi-stage rocket (1914),
and a liquid-fuel rocket (1914)—were important milestones toward
spaceflight. His 1919
monograph A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes is considered one of the classic texts of 20th-century rocket science. Goddard successfully applied
three-axis control,
gyroscopes and
steerable thrust to rockets to effectively control their flight.
Although his work in the field was revolutionary, Goddard
received very little public support for his research and development
work. The press sometimes ridiculed his theories of spaceflight. As a
result, he became protective of his privacy and his work. Years after
his death, at the dawn of the Space Age, he came to be recognized as one
of the founding fathers of modern rocketry, along with
Robert Esnault-Pelterie,
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and
Hermann Oberth. He not only recognized the potential of rockets for atmospheric research,
ballistic missiles and
space travel but was the first to scientifically study, design and construct the rockets needed to implement those ideas.
NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center was named in Goddard's honor in 1959.
Early life and inspiration
Goddard was born in
Worcester, Massachusetts,
to Nahum Danford Goddard (1859–1928), a farmer, and Fannie Louise Hoyt
(1864–1920). Robert was their only child to survive; a younger son,
Richard Henry, was born with a spinal deformity and died before his
first birthday.
Goddard's family had roots in New England dating to the late 1600s.
Shortly after his birth the family moved to Boston. With a curiosity
about nature, he studied the heavens using a telescope from his father
and observed the birds flying. Essentially a country boy, he loved the
outdoors and hiking with his father on trips to Worcester and became an
excellent marksman with a rifle.
In 1898 his mother contracted tuberculosis and they moved back to
Worcester for the clear air. On Sundays the family attended the
Episcopal church, and Robert sang in the choir.
Childhood experiment
With the
electrification
of American cities in the 1880s, the young Goddard became interested in
science—specifically, engineering and technology. When his father
showed him how to generate static electricity on the family's carpet,
the five-year-old's imagination was sparked. Robert experimented,
believing he could jump higher if the
zinc
from a battery could be charged by scuffing his feet on the gravel
walk. But, holding the zinc, he could jump no higher than usual.
Goddard halted the experiments after a warning from his mother that if
he succeeded, he could "go sailing away and might not be able to come
back."
He experimented with chemicals and created a cloud of smoke and an explosion in the house.
Goddard's father further encouraged Robert's scientific interest by
providing him with a telescope, a microscope, and a subscription to
Scientific American.
Robert developed a fascination with flight, first with
kites and then with
balloons.
He became a thorough diarist and documenter of his work—a skill that
would greatly benefit his later career. These interests merged at age
16, when Goddard attempted to construct a balloon out of aluminum,
shaping the raw metal in his home workshop, and filling it with
hydrogen. After nearly five weeks of methodical, documented efforts, he
finally abandoned the project, remarking, "... balloon will not go up.
... Aluminum is too heavy. Failior [
sic]
crowns enterprise." However, the lesson of this failure did not
restrain Goddard's growing determination and confidence in his work.
Cherry tree dream
He became interested in space when he read
H. G. Wells' science fiction classic
The War of the Worlds at 16 years old.
His dedication to pursuing space flight became fixed on October 19,
1899. The 17-year-old Goddard climbed a cherry tree to cut off dead
limbs. He was transfixed by the sky, and his imagination grew. He later
wrote:
On this day I climbed a tall cherry
tree at the back of the barn ... 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 have
several photographs of the tree, taken since, with the little ladder I
made to climb it, leaning against it.
It seemed to me then that a weight whirling around a horizontal
shaft, moving more rapidly above than below, could furnish lift by
virtue of the greater centrifugal force at the top of the path.
I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended. Existence at last seemed very purposive.
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 fell two years behind his classmates. He became a
voracious reader, regularly visiting the local public library to borrow
books on the physical sciences.
Aerodynamics and motion
Goddard's interest in aerodynamics led him to study some of
Samuel Langley's scientific papers in the periodical
Smithsonian.
In these papers, Langley wrote that birds flap their wings with
different force on each side to turn in the air. Inspired by these
articles, the teenage Goddard watched swallows and chimney swifts from
the porch of his home, noting how subtly the birds moved their wings to
control their flight. He noted how remarkably the birds controlled their
flight with their tail feathers, which he called the birds' equivalent
of
ailerons. He took exception to some of Langley's conclusions and in 1901 wrote a letter to
St. Nicholas magazine with his own ideas. The editor of
St. Nicholas
declined to publish Goddard's letter, remarking that birds fly with a
certain amount of intelligence and that "machines will not act with such
intelligence." Goddard disagreed, believing that a man could control a flying machine with his own intelligence.
I began to realize that there might
be something after all to Newton's Laws. The Third Law was accordingly
tested, both with devices suspended by rubber bands and by devices on
floats, in the little brook back of the barn, and the said law was
verified conclusively. It made me realize that if a way to navigate
space were to be discovered, or invented, it would be the result of a
knowledge of physics and mathematics.
Academics
As his health improved, Goddard continued his formal schooling as a 19-year-old sophomore at
South High Community School
in Worcester in 1901. He excelled in his coursework, and his peers
twice elected him class president. Making up for lost time, he studied
books on mathematics, astronomy, mechanics and composition from the
school library. At his graduation ceremony in 1904, he gave his class oration as
valedictorian. In his speech, entitled "On Taking Things for Granted", Goddard included a section that would become emblematic of his life:
[J]ust as in the sciences we have learned that we are too
ignorant to safely pronounce anything impossible, so for the
individual, since we cannot know just what are his limitations, we can
hardly say with certainty that anything is necessarily within or beyond
his grasp. Each must remember that no one can predict to what heights of
wealth, fame, or usefulness he may rise until he has honestly
endeavored, and he should derive courage from the fact that all sciences
have been, at some time, in the same condition as he, and that it has
often proved true that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and
the reality of tomorrow.
Goddard enrolled at
Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1904.
He quickly impressed the head of the physics department, A. Wilmer
Duff, with his thirst for knowledge, and Duff took him on as a
laboratory assistant and tutor.
At WPI, Goddard joined the
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
fraternity, and began a long courtship with high school classmate
Miriam Olmstead, an honor student who had graduated with him as
salutatorian. Eventually, she and Goddard were engaged, but they drifted apart and ended the engagement around 1909.
Goddard received his
B.S. degree in physics from Worcester Polytechnic in 1908,
and after serving there for a year as an instructor in physics, he began his graduate studies at
Clark University in Worcester in the fall of 1909. 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.
First scientific writings
The
high school student summed up his ideas on space travel in a proposed
article, "The Navigation of Space," which he submitted to the Popular Science News. The journal's editor returned it, saying that they could not use it "in the near future."
While still an undergraduate, Goddard wrote a paper proposing a
method for balancing aeroplanes using gyro-stabilization. He submitted
the idea to
Scientific American,
which published the paper in 1907. Goddard later wrote in his diaries
that he believed his paper was the first proposal of a way to
automatically stabilize aircraft in flight.
His proposal came around the same time as other scientists were making breakthroughs in developing functional
gyroscopes.
His first writing on the possibility of a liquid-fueled rocket
came on February 2, 1909. Goddard had begun to study ways of increasing a
rocket's efficiency using methods differing from conventional
solid-fuel rockets.
He wrote in his journal about using liquid hydrogen as a fuel with
liquid oxygen as the oxidizer. He believed that 50 percent efficiency
could be achieved with these liquid propellants (i.e., half of the heat
energy of combustion converted to kinetic energy of the exhaust gases).
First patents
In
the decades around 1910, radio was a new technology, fertile for
innovation. In 1912, while working at Princeton University, Goddard
investigated the effects of radio waves on insulators. In order to generate radio-frequency power, he invented a vacuum tube that operated like a cathode-ray oscillator tube.
U.S. Patent 1,159,209 was issued on November 2, 1915. This was the first use of a vacuum tube to amplify a signal, preceding even
Lee de Forest's claim.
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. His first goal was to build a sounding rocket with
which to study the atmosphere. Not only would such investigation aid
meteorology, but it was necessary to determine temperature, density and
wind speed in order to design efficient space launch vehicles. He was
very reluctant to admit that his ultimate goal was in fact to develop a
vehicle for flights into space, since most scientists, especially in the
United States, did not consider such a goal to be a realistic or
practical scientific pursuit, nor was the public yet ready to seriously
consider such ideas. Later, in 1933, Goddard said that "[I]n no case
must we allow ourselves to be deterred from the achievement of space
travel, test by test and step by step, until one day we succeed, cost
what it may."
Unfortunately, in early 1913, Goddard became seriously ill with
tuberculosis
and had to leave his position at Princeton. He then returned to
Worcester, where he began a prolonged process of recovery. His doctors
did not expect him to live. He decided he should spend time outside in
the fresh air and walk for exercise, and he gradually improved.
When his nurse discovered some of his notes in his bed, he kept them, arguing,"I have to live to do this work."
It was during this period of recuperation, however, that Goddard
began to produce some of his most important work. As his symptoms
subsided, he allowed himself to work an hour per day with his notes made
at Princeton. In the technological and manufacturing atmosphere of
Worcester, patents were considered essential, not only to protect
original work, but as documentation of first discovery. He began to see
the importance of his ideas as intellectual property, and thus began to
secure those ideas before someone else did—and he would have to pay to
use them. In May 1913, he wrote concerning his first rocket patent
applications. His father brought them to a patent lawyer in a firm in
Worcester, who helped him to refine his ideas for consideration.
Goddard's first patent application was submitted in October 1913.
In 1914, his first two landmark
patents were accepted and registered. The first,
U.S. Patent 1,102,653, described a multi-stage rocket fueled with a solid "explosive material." The second,
U.S. Patent 1,103,503, described a rocket fueled with a
solid fuel (explosive material) or with
liquid propellants (gasoline and liquid nitrous oxide). The two patents would eventually become important milestones in the history of rocketry. Overall, he published 214 patents, some posthumously by his wife.
Early rocketry research
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.
His position at Clark allowed him to further his rocketry research. He
ordered numerous supplies that could be used to build rocket prototypes
for launch and spent much of 1915 in preparation for his first tests.
Goddard's first test launch of a powder rocket came on an early evening
in 1915 following his daytime classes at Clark.
The launch was loud and bright enough to arouse the alarm of the campus
janitor, and Goddard had to reassure him that his experiments, while
being serious study, were also quite harmless. After this incident,
Goddard took his experiments inside the physics lab, in order to limit
any disturbance.
At the Clark physics lab, Goddard conducted static tests of
powder rockets to measure their thrust and efficiency. He found his
earlier estimates to be verified; powder rockets were converting only
about 2 percent of their fuel into thrust. At this point he applied
de Laval nozzles,
which were generally used with steam turbine engines, and these greatly
improved efficiency. (Of the several definitions of rocket efficiency,
Goddard measured in his laboratory what is today called the
internal efficiency
of the engine: the ratio of the kinetic energy of the exhaust gases to
the available thermal energy of combustion, expressed as a percentage.)
By mid-summer of 1915, Goddard had obtained an average efficiency of 40 percent with a nozzle exit velocity of
6728 feet (2051 meters) per second. Connecting a combustion chamber full of gunpowder to various
converging-diverging expansion nozzles, Goddard was able in static tests
to achieve engine efficiencies of more than 63% and exhaust velocities
of over 7000 feet (2134 meters) per second.
Few would recognize it at the time, but this little engine was a major
breakthrough. These experiments suggested that rockets could be made
powerful enough to escape Earth and travel into space. This engine, and
subsequent experiments sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, were
the beginning of modern rocketry and, ultimately, space exploration. 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 his letter to the Smithsonian in September 1916, Goddard
claimed he had achieved a 63% efficiency and a nozzle velocity of almost
2438 meters per second. With these performance levels, he believed a rocket could vertically lift a weight of 1 lb (0.45 kg) to a height of 232 miles (373 km) with an initial launch weight of only 89.6 lbs (40.64 kg).
(Earth's atmosphere at 80 to 100 miles (130 to 160 km) altitude begins
to have a significant drag effect on orbiting satellites and can be
considered to end about that area.)
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.
In January 1917, the Smithsonian agreed to provide Goddard with a five-year grant totaling US$5000. Afterward, Clark was able to contribute US$3500
and the use of their physics lab to the project. Worcester Polytechnic
Institute also allowed him to use its abandoned Magnetics Laboratory on
the edge of campus during this time, as a safe place for testing.
It wasn't until two years later, at the insistence of Dr. Arthur
G. Webster, the world-renowned head of Clark's physics department, that
Goddard arranged for the Smithsonian to publish his work.
While at Clark University, Goddard did research into solar power
using a parabolic dish to concentrate the Sun's rays on a machined piece
of
quartz, that was sprayed with
mercury,
which then heated water and drove an electric generator. Goddard
believed his invention had overcome all the obstacles that had
previously defeated other scientists and inventors, and he had his
findings published in the November 1929 issue of
Popular Science.
Goddard's military rocket
Not
all of Goddard's early work was geared towards 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.
During this time, Goddard was also contacted by a civilian
industrialist in Worcester about the possibility of manufacturing
rockets for the military. However, as the businessman's enthusiasm grew,
so did Goddard's suspicion. Talks eventually broke down as Goddard
began to fear his work might be appropriated by the business. However,
an
Army Signal Corps
officer tried to make Goddard cooperate, but he was called off by
General George Squier of the Signal Corps who had been contacted by
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Charles Walcott. Goddard became leery of working with corporations and was careful to secure patents to "protect his ideas." These events led to the Signal Corps sponsoring Goddard's work during World War I.
Goddard proposed to the Army an idea for a tube-based rocket
launcher as a light infantry weapon. The launcher concept became the
precursor to the
bazooka.
The rocket-powered, recoil-free weapon was the brainchild of Goddard as
a side project (under Army contract) of his work on rocket propulsion.
Goddard, during his
tenure at
Clark University, and working at
Mount Wilson Observatory for security reasons, designed the tube-fired rocket for military use during World War I. He and his co-worker, Dr.
Clarence N. Hickman successfully demonstrated his rocket to the
U.S. Army Signal Corps at
Aberdeen Proving Ground,
Maryland, on November 6, 1918, using two music stands for a launch platform. The Army was impressed, but the
Compiègne Armistice was signed only five days later, and further development was discontinued as World War I ended.
The delay in the development of the bazooka and other weapons was
a result of Goddard's serious bout with tuberculosis—the long recovery
required. Goddard continued to be a part-time consultant to the U.S.
Government at
Indian Head, Maryland,
until 1923, but his focus had turned to other research involving rocket
propulsion, including work with liquid fuels and liquid oxygen.
Later, the former Clark University researcher Dr.
Clarence N. Hickman, and Army officers Col.
Leslie Skinner and Lt.
Edward Uhl continued Goddard's work on the bazooka. A
shaped-charge
warhead was attached to the rocket, leading to the tank-killing weapon
used in World War II and to many other powerful rocket weapons.
A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes
In
1919 Goddard thought that it would be premature to disclose the results
of his experiments because his engine was not sufficiently developed.
Dr. Webster realized that Goddard had accomplished a good deal of fine
work and insisted that Goddard publish his progress so far or he would
take care of it himself, so Goddard asked the Smithsonian Institution if
it would publish the report he had submitted in late 1916.
In late 1919, the Smithsonian published Goddard's groundbreaking work,
A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes.
The report describes Goddard's mathematical theories of rocket flight,
his experiments with solid-fuel rockets, and the possibilities he saw of
exploring Earth's atmosphere and beyond. Along with
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's earlier work,
The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices, which was not widely disseminated outside Russia,
Goddard's book is regarded as one of the pioneering works of the
science of rocketry, and 1750 copies were distributed worldwide.
Goddard described extensive experiments with solid-fuel rocket engines burning high grade nitrocellulose
smokeless powder. A critical breakthrough was the use of the steam turbine nozzle invented by the Swedish inventor
Gustaf de Laval. The
de Laval nozzle allows the most efficient (
isentropic) conversion of the energy of hot gases into forward motion.
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 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.
Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace.
–Response to a reporter's question following criticism in The New York Times, 1920.
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. David Lasser, who co-founded the
American Rocket Society, wrote in 1931 that Goddard was subjected in the press to the "most violent attacks."
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:
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. And the rocket, or what was left of it after the last explosion,
would need to be aimed with amazing skill, and in a dead calm, to fall
on the spot whence it started. [New paragraph.] But that is a slight
inconvenience, at least from the scientific standpoint, though it might
be serious enough from that of the always innocent bystander a few
hundred or thousand yards from the firing line.
The article pressed further on Goddard's proposal to launch rockets beyond the atmosphere:
[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.
The basis of that criticism was the then-common belief that thrust
was produced by the rocket exhaust pushing against the atmosphere;
Goddard realized that Newton's third law (reaction) was the actual
principle.
Finally, in the follow-on section, "His plan is not original",
the writer assumed, wrongly, that Goddard's understanding of Newton's
laws was flawed:
That Professor Goddard, with his "chair" in Clark College
and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not know the
relation of action and reaction, and of the need to have something
better than a vacuum against which to react—to say that would be absurd.
Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high
schools.
Unbeknownst to the Times, thrust is possible in a vacuum, as the writer would have discovered had he read Goddard's paper.
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:
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.
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. After one of Goddard's experiments in 1929, a local
Worcester newspaper carried the mocking headline "Moon rocket misses
target by 238,799
1⁄2 miles."
Goddard worked alone with just his team of mechanics and
machinists for many years. This was a result of the harsh criticism
from the media and other scientists, and his understanding of the
military applications which foreign powers might use. Goddard became
increasingly suspicious of others and often worked alone, except during
the two World Wars, which limited the impact of much of his work.
Another limiting factor was the lack of support from the American
government, military and academia, all failing to understand the value
of the rocket to study the atmosphere and near space, and for military
applications. As Germany became ever more war-like, he refused to
communicate with German rocket experimenters, though he received more
and more of their correspondence.
'A Correction'
Forty-nine years after its editorial mocking Goddard, on July 17, 1969—the day after the launch of
Apollo 11—
The New York Times
published a short item under the headline "A Correction." The
three-paragraph statement summarized its 1920 editorial, and concluded:
Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed
the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th Century and it is now
definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as
in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error.
First liquid-fueled flight
First static tests
Robert
Goddard, bundled against the cold weather of March 16, 1926, holds the
launching frame of his most notable invention — the first liquid-fueled
rocket.
In 1924–25, Goddard had problems developing a high-pressure
piston pump
to send fuel to the combustion chamber. He wanted to scale up the
experiments, but his funding would not allow such growth. He decided to
forego the pumps and use a pressurized fuel feed system applying
pressure to the fuel tank from a tank of
inert gas, a technique used today. The liquid oxygen, some of which evaporated, provided its own pressure.
On December 6, 1925, he tested the simpler pressure feed system.
He conducted a static test on the firing stand at the Clark University
physics laboratory. The engine successfully lifted its own weight in a
27-second test in the static rack. It was a major success for Goddard,
proving that a liquid fuel rocket was possible. The test moved Goddard an important step closer to launching a rocket with liquid fuel.
Goddard conducted an additional test in December, and two more in
January 1926. After that, he began preparing for a possible launch of
the rocket system.
First flight
Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled (
gasoline and liquid oxygen) rocket on March 16, 1926, in
Auburn, Massachusetts.
Present at the launch were his crew chief Henry Sachs, Esther Goddard,
and Percy Roope, who was Clark's assistant professor in the physics
department. Goddard's diary entry of the event was notable for its
understatement:
March 16. Went to Auburn with S[achs] in am. E[sther] and Mr. Roope
came out at 1 p.m. Tried rocket at 2.30. It rose 41 feet & went 184
feet, in 2.5 secs., after the lower half of the nozzle burned off.
Brought materials to lab. ...
His diary entry the next day elaborated:
March 17, 1926. The first flight with a rocket using liquid
propellants was made yesterday at Aunt Effie's farm in Auburn. ...
Even though the release was pulled, the rocket did not rise at first,
but the flame came out, and there was a steady roar. After a number of
seconds it rose, slowly until it cleared the frame, and then at express
train speed, curving over to the left, and striking the ice and snow,
still going at a rapid rate.
The rocket, which was later dubbed "Nell", rose just 41 feet during a
2.5-second flight that ended 184 feet away in a cabbage field,
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.
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.
Goddard determined early that fins alone were not sufficient to
stabilize the rocket in flight and keep it on the desired trajectory in
the face of winds aloft and other disturbing forces. He added movable
vanes in the exhaust, controlled by a gyroscope, to control and steer
his rocket. (The Germans used this technique in their V-2.) He also
introduced the more efficient swiveling engine in several rockets,
basically the method used to steer large liquid-propellant missiles and
launchers today.
Lindbergh and Goddard
After a launch of one of Goddard's rockets in July 1929 again gained the attention of the newspapers,
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.
Professor Goddard met the aviator soon after, in his office at Clark University.
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
reticent to share his ideas, Goddard showed complete openness with those
few who shared his dream, and whom he felt he could trust.
By late 1929, Goddard had been attracting additional notoriety
with each rocket launch. He was finding it increasingly difficult to
conduct his research without unwanted distractions. Lindbergh discussed
finding additional financing for Goddard's work, and lent his famous
name to Goddard's work. In 1930 Lindbergh made several proposals to
industry and private investors for funding, which proved all but
impossible to find following the recent
U.S. stock market crash in October 1929.
In the spring of 1930, Lindbergh finally found an ally in the
Guggenheim family. Financier
Daniel Guggenheim
agreed to fund Goddard's research over the next four years for a total
of $100,000 (~$1.8 million today). The Guggenheim family, especially
Harry Guggenheim, would continue to support Goddard's work in the years to come. The Goddards soon moved to
Roswell, New Mexico.
Because of the military potential of the rocket, Goddard,
Lindbergh, Harry Guggenheim, the Smithsonian Institution and others
tried in 1940, before the U.S. entered World War II, to convince the
Army and Navy of its value. Goddard's services were offered, but there
was no interest, initially. Two young, imaginative officers eventually
got the services to attempt to contract with Goddard just prior to the
war. The Navy beat the Army to the punch and secured his services to
build liquid-fueled rockets for jet-assisted take-off (JATO) of
aircraft. These rockets were the precursors to some of the large rocket engines that launched the space age.
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.
Between the World Wars, the
Guggenheim Foundation was the main source of funding for Goddard's research.
Goddard's liquid-fueled rocket was neglected by his country, according
to aerospace historian Eugene Emme, but was noticed and advanced by
other nations, especially the Germans.
Goddard showed remarkable prescience in 1923 in a letter to the
Smithsonian. He knew that the Germans were very interested in rocketry
and said he "would not be surprised if the research would become
something in the nature of a race" and he wondered how soon the European
"theorists" would begin to build rockets.
In 1936, the U.S. military attaché in Berlin asked Charles Lindbergh to
visit Germany and learn what he could of their progress in aviation.
Although the Luftwaffe showed him their factories and were open
concerning their growing airpower, they were silent on the subject of
rocketry. When Lindbergh told Goddard of this behavior, Goddard said,
"Yes, they must have plans for the rocket. When will our own people in
Washington listen to reason?"
Most of the U.S.'s largest universities were also slow to realize
rocketry's potential. Just before World War II, the head of the
aeronautics department at MIT, at a meeting held by the
Army Air Corps to discuss project funding, said that the
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) "can take the Buck Rogers Job [rocket research]." In 1941, Goddard tried to recruit an engineer for his team from MIT but couldn't find one who was interested.
There were some exceptions: MIT was at least teaching basic rocketry,
and Caltech had courses in rocketry and aerodynamics. After the war,
Dr. Jerome Hunsaker of MIT, having studied Goddard's patents, stated
that "Every liquid-fuel rocket that flies is a Goddard rocket."
While away in Roswell, Goddard was still head of the physics
department at Clark University, and Clark deserves credit for allowing
him to devote most of his time to rocket research. Likewise the
University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA) permitted astronomer Samuel Herrick to pursue research in space
vehicle guidance and control, and shortly after the war to teach courses
in spacecraft guidance and orbit determination. Herrick began
corresponding with Goddard in 1931 and asked if he should work in this
new field, which he named
astrodynamics. Herrick said that Goddard had the vision to advise and encourage him in his use of
celestial mechanics "to anticipate the basic problem of space navigation."
Roswell, New Mexico
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.
Goddard towing a rocket in Roswell
With new financial backing, Goddard eventually relocated to 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).
The locals valued personal privacy, knew Goddard desired his, and when
travelers asked where Goddard's facilities were located, they would
likely be misdirected.
By September 1931, his rockets had the now familiar appearance of a smooth casing with tail-fins. He began experimenting with
gyroscopic
guidance, and made a flight test of such a system in April 1932. A
gyroscope mounted on gimbals electrically controlled steering vanes in
the exhaust, similar to the system used by the German
V-2
over 10 years later. Though the rocket crashed after a short ascent,
the guidance system had worked, and Goddard considered the test a
success.
A temporary loss of funding from the Guggenheims, as a result of
the depression, forced Goddard in spring of 1932 to return to Clark
University until the autumn of 1934, when funding resumed. Upon his
return to Roswell, he began work on his A series of rockets, 4 to
4.5 meters long, and powered by gasoline and liquid oxygen pressurized
with nitrogen. The gyroscopic control system was housed in the middle of
the rocket, between the propellant tanks.
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.
In 1936–1939, Goddard began work on the K and L series rockets,
which were much more massive and designed to reach very high altitude.
The K series consisted of static bench tests of a more powerful engine,
achieving a thrust of 624 lbs.in February 1936.
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. He then used a curtain 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. Returning to a smaller design, the
L-13 reached an altitude of 2.7 kilometers (1.7 mi; 8,900 ft), the
highest of any of Goddard's rockets. Weight was reduced by using
thin-walled fuel tanks wound with high-tensile-strength wire.
Goddard experimented with many of the features of today's large
rockets, such as multiple combustion chambers and nozzles. In November,
1936, he flew the world's first rocket (L-7) with multiple chambers,
hoping to increase thrust without increasing the size of a single
chamber. It had four combustion chambers, reached a height of 200 feet,
and corrected its vertical path using blast vanes until one chamber
burned through. This flight demonstrated that a rocket with multiple
combustion chambers could fly stably and be easily guided.
From 1940 to 1941, work was done on the P series of rockets,
which used propellant turbopumps (also powered by gasoline and liquid
oxygen). The lightweight pumps produced higher propellant pressures,
permitting a more powerful engine (greater thrust) and a lighter
structure (lighter tanks and no pressurization tank), but two launches
both ended in crashes after reaching an altitude of only a few hundred
feet. The turbopumps worked well, however, and Goddard was pleased.
When Goddard mentioned the need for turbopumps, Harry Guggenheim
suggested that he contact pump manufacturers to aid him. None were
interested, as the development cost of these miniature pumps was
prohibitive. Goddard's team was therefore left on its own and from
September 1938 to June 1940 designed and tested the small turbopumps and
gas generators to operate the turbines. Esther later said that the pump
tests were "the most trying and disheartening phase of the research."
Goddard was able to flight-test many of his rockets, but many
resulted in what the uninitiated would call failures, usually resulting
from engine malfunction or loss of control. Goddard did not consider
them failures, however, because he felt that he always learned something
from a test. Most of his work involved static tests, which are a standard procedure today, before a flight test.
General Jimmy Doolittle
Jimmy Doolittle
was introduced to the field of space science at an early point in its
history. He recalls in his autobiography, "I became interested in rocket
development in the 1930s when I met Robert H. Goddard, who laid the
foundation. ... While with Shell Oil I worked with him on the
development of a type of fuel. ... "
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.
Shortly after World War II Doolittle spoke to an American Rocket
Society conference at which a large number interested in rocketry
attended. His talk concerned Dr. Robert Goddard. He later stated that at
that time "we [in the aeronautics field] had not given much credence to
the tremendous potential of rocketry." In 1956 he was appointed chairman of the
National Adviser 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.
Doolittle was instrumental in the successful transition of the NACA to the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. He was offered the position as first administrator of NASA, but he turned it down.
Launch history
Between 1926 and 1941, the following 35 rockets were launched:
| Date |
Type |
Altitude in feet |
Altitude in metres |
Flight duration |
Notes
|
| March 16, 1926 |
Goddard 1 |
41 |
12.5 |
2.5 s |
first liquid rocket launch
|
| April 3, 1926 |
Goddard 1 |
49 |
15 |
4.2 s |
record altitude
|
| December 26, 1928 |
Goddard 3 |
16 |
5 |
unknown |
|
| July 17, 1929 |
Goddard 3 |
90 |
27 |
5.5 s |
record altitude
|
| December 30, 1930 |
Goddard 4 |
2000 |
610 |
unknown |
record altitude
|
| September 29, 1931 |
Goddard 4 |
180 |
55 |
9.6 s |
|
| October 13, 1931 |
Goddard 4 |
1700 |
520 |
unknown |
|
| October 27, 1931 |
Goddard 4 |
1330 |
410 |
unknown |
|
| April 19, 1932 |
- |
135 |
41 |
5 s |
|
| February 16, 1935 |
A series |
650 |
200 |
unknown |
|
| March 8, 1935 |
A series |
1000 |
300 |
12 s |
|
| March 28, 1935 |
A series |
4800 |
1460 |
20 s |
record altitude
|
| May 31, 1935 |
A series |
7500 |
2300 |
unknown |
record altitude
|
| June 25, 1935 |
A series |
120 |
37 |
10 s |
|
| July 12, 1935 |
A series |
6600 |
2000 |
14 s |
|
| October 29, 1935 |
A series |
4000 |
1220 |
12 s |
|
| July 31, 1936 |
L series, Section A |
200 |
60 |
5 s |
|
| October 3, 1936 |
L-A |
200 |
60 |
5 s |
|
| November 7, 1936 |
L-A |
200 |
60 |
unknown |
|
| December 18, 1936 |
L series, Section B |
3 |
1 |
unknown |
Veered horizontally immediately after launch
|
| February 1, 1937 |
L-B |
1870 |
570 |
20.5 s |
|
| February 27, 1937 |
L-B |
1500 |
460 |
20 s |
|
| March 26, 1937 |
L-B |
8000-9000 |
2500–2700 |
22.3 s |
Highest altitude achieved
|
| April 22, 1937 |
L-B |
6560 |
2000 |
21.5 s |
|
| May 19, 1937 |
L-B |
3250 |
990 |
29.5 s |
|
| July 28, 1937 |
L-series, Section C |
2055 |
630 |
28 s |
|
| August 26, 1937 |
L-C |
2000 |
600 |
unknown |
|
| November 24, 1937 |
L-C |
100 |
30 |
unknown |
|
| March 6, 1938 |
L-C |
525 |
160 |
unknown |
|
| March 17, 1938 |
L-C |
2170 |
660 |
15 s |
|
| April 20, 1938 |
L-C |
4215 |
1260 |
25.3 s |
|
| May 26, 1938 |
L-C |
140 |
40 |
unknown |
|
| August 9, 1938 |
L-C |
4920 (visual)
3294 (barograph) |
1500
1000 |
unknown |
|
| August 9, 1940 |
P-series, Section C |
300 |
90 |
unknown |
|
| May 8, 1941 |
P-C |
250 |
80 |
unknown |
|
Some of the parts of Goddard's rockets
Analysis of results
As
an instrument for reaching extreme altitudes, Goddard's rockets were
not very successful; they did not achieve an altitude greater than
2.7 km in 1937, while a balloon sonde had already reached 35 km in 1921.
By contrast, German rocket scientists had achieved an altitude of 2.4 km with the A-2 rocket in 1934,
8 km by 1939 with the A-5, and 196 km in 1942 with the A-4 (
V-2) launched vertically, reaching the outer limits of the atmosphere and into space.
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, more reliable rockets to reach extreme
altitudes when World War II intervened and changed the path of American
history. He hoped to return to his experiments in Roswell after the war.
Although Goddard had brought his work in rocketry to the attention of the
United States Army,
between World Wars, he was rebuffed, since the Army largely failed to
grasp the military application of large rockets and said there was no
money for new experimental weapons.
German military intelligence, by contrast, had paid attention to
Goddard's work. The Goddards noticed that some mail had been opened, and
some mailed reports had gone missing. An accredited
military attaché to the US, Friedrich von Boetticher, sent a four-page report to the
Abwehr
in 1936, and the spy Gustav Guellich sent a mixture of facts and
made-up information, claiming to have visited Roswell and witnessed a
launch. The
Abwehr was very interested and responded with more questions about Goddard's work. Guellich's reports did include information about fuel mixtures and the important concept of fuel-curtain cooling, but thereafter the Germans received very little information about Goddard.
The Soviet Union had a spy 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."
In April Fischer notified Goddard that the Navy wanted to do all
its rocket work at the Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis.
Esther, worried that a move to the climate of Maryland would cause
Robert's health to deteriorate faster, objected. But the patriotic
Goddard replied, "Esther, don't you know there's a war on?" Fischer also
questioned the move, as Goddard could work just as well in Roswell.
Goddard simply answered, "I was wondering when you would ask me."
Fischer had wanted to offer him something bigger—a long range
missile—but JATO was all he could manage, hoping for a greater project
later. It was a case of a square peg in a round hole, according to a disappointed Goddard.
Goddard and his team had already been in Annapolis a month and
had tested his constant-thrust JATO engine when he received a Navy
telegram, forwarded from Roswell, ordering him to Annapolis. Lt. Fischer
asked for a crash effort. By August his engine was producing 800 lbs of
thrust for 20 seconds, and Fischer was anxious to try it on a PBY. On
the sixth test run, with all bugs worked out, the PBY, piloted by
Fischer, was pushed into the air from the Severn River. Fischer landed
and prepared to launch again. Goddard had wanted to check the unit, but
radio contact with the PBY had been lost. On the seventh try the engine
caught fire. The plane was 150 feet up when flight was aborted. Because
Goddard had installed a safety feature at the last minute there was no
explosion and no lives were lost. The problem's cause was traced to
hasty installation and rough handling. Cheaper, safer solid fuel JATO
engines were eventually selected by the armed forces. An engineer later
said, "Putting [Goddard's] rocket on a seaplane was like hitching an
eagle to a plow."
Despite Goddard's efforts to convince the Navy that liquid-fueled
rockets had greater potential, he said that the Navy had no interest in
long-range missiles.
However, the Navy asked him to perfect the throttleable JATO engine.
Goddard made improvements to the engine, and in November it was
demonstrated to the Navy and some officials from Washington. Fischer
invited the spectators to operate the controls; the engine blasted out
over the Severn at full throttle with no hesitation, idled, and roared
again at various thrust levels. The test was perfect, exceeding the
Navy's requirements. The unit was able to be stopped and restarted, and
it produced a medium thrust of 600 pounds for 15 seconds and a full
thrust of 1,000 pounds for over 15 seconds. A Navy Commander commented
that "It was like being Thor, playing with thunderbolts." Goddard had
produced the essential propulsion control system of the rocket plane.
The Goddards celebrated by attending the Army-Navy football game and
attending the Fischers' cocktail party.
This engine was the basis of the Curtiss-Wright XLR25-CW-1 two-chamber, 15,000-pound thrust engine that powered the
Bell X-2 research rocket plane. After World War II Goddard's team and some patents went to
Curtiss-Wright
Corporation. "Although his death in August 1945 prevented him from
participating in the actual development of this engine, it was a direct
descendent of his design."
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.
V-2
Don't you know about your own rocket pioneer? Dr. Goddard was ahead of us all.
–Wernher von Braun, when asked about his work, following World War II
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, 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, but had also started from the work of their own space pioneer,
Hermann Oberth;
they also had the benefit of intensive state funding, large-scale
production facilities (using slave labor), and repeated flight-testing
that allowed them to refine their designs. Oberth was a theorist and had
never built a rocket or a working engine.
Nevertheless, in 1963, von Braun, reflecting on the history of
rocketry, said of Goddard: "His rockets ... may have been rather crude
by present-day standards, but they blazed the trail and incorporated
many features used in our most modern rockets and space vehicles".
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 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) to
persuade Hitler to raise the priority of the V-2. It was a strategic
mistake, however, to expend an estimated one-half billion
war-era-dollars (not counting slave labor) for a terror weapon that did
not create the fear desired and lacked the accuracy to be very effective
against military targets. Resources could have been better used on
existing, or new more effective, weapons.
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, at an earlier point von Kármán said that Malina was "highly
enthusiastic" after his visit and that Caltech made changes to their
liquid-propellant rocket, based on Goddard's work and patents. Malina
remembered his visit as friendly and that he saw all but a few
components in Goddard's shop.
Goddard's concerns about secrecy led to criticism for failure to
cooperate with other scientists and engineers. His approach at that time
was that independent development of his ideas without interference
would bring quicker results even though he received less technical
support. George Sutton, who became a rocket scientist working with von
Braun's team in the late 1940s, said that he and his fellow workers had
not heard of Goddard or his contributions, and that they would have
saved time if they had known the details of his work. Sutton admits that
it may have been their fault for not looking for Goddard's patents and
depending on the German team for knowledge and guidance; he wrote that
information about the patents was not well distributed in the U.S. at
that early period, though Germany and the Soviet Union had copies of
some of them. (The Patent Office did not release rocket patents during
World War II.) 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
U.S. Patent 1,102,653 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
rockets with solid fuel, while he was using liquid fuels.
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, feeling that his time was extremely constrained.
Goddard's health was frequently poor, as a result of his earlier bout
of tuberculosis, and he was uncertain about how long he had to live. He
felt, therefore, that he hadn't the time to spare arguing with other
scientists and the press about his new field of research, or helping all
the amateur rocketeers who wrote to him. In 1932 Goddard wrote to H. G. Wells:
How many more years I shall be able to work on the
problem, I do not know; I hope, as long as I live. There can be no
thought of finishing, for "aiming at the stars", both literally and
figuratively, is a problem to occupy generations, so that no matter how
much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.
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.
He tended to avoid any mention of space flight, and spoke only of
high-altitude research, since he believed that other scientists regarded
the subject as unscientific.
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 was having trouble with the rocket's engine
performance. Frank Malina went to Annapolis and consulted with Goddard
and they arrived at a solution to the liquid propellant problem, which
resulted in the successful launch of the high-altitude research rocket.
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 some 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.
Personal life
On June 21, 1924, Goddard married Esther Christine Kisk (March 31, 1901 – June 4, 1982),
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 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.
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.
Goddard's serious bout with tuberculosis weakened his lungs,
affecting his ability to work, and was one reason he liked to work
alone, in order to avoid argument, and confrontation with others and use
his time fruitfully. He labored with the prospect of a shorter than
average life span. After arriving in Roswell, Goddard applied for life
insurance, but when the company doctor examined him he said that Goddard
belonged in a bed in Switzerland (where he could get the best care).
Goddard's health began to deteriorate further after moving to the humid
climate of Maryland to work for the Navy. He was diagnosed with throat
cancer in 1945. He continued to work, able to speak only in a whisper,
until surgery was required, and he died in August of that year in
Baltimore, Maryland. 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 several 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 in September 16, 1959.
- The Goddard Space Flight Center, a NASA facility in Greenbelt, Maryland, was established in 1959. The crater Goddard on the Moon is also named in his honor.
- The Dr. Robert H. Goddard Collection and the Robert Goddard
Exhibition Room are housed in the Archives and Special Collections area
of Clark University's Robert H. Goddard Library.
- Robert H. Goddard High School was completed in 1965 in Roswell, New Mexico, and dedicated by Esther Goddard; the school's mascot is titled "Rockets".
- Robert H. Goddard Middle School is in Glendora, California. Their mascot is the "Titan", but not the Titan of Greek mythology—the Titan Rocket.
- A small memorial with a statue of Goddard is located at the site
where Goddard launched the first liquid-propelled rocket, now the
Pakachoag golf course in Auburn, Massachusetts.
- Release 13 of the Linux distribution Fedora is named after Goddard.
- The television series Star Trek: The Next Generation had a shuttlecraft named after Goddard.
- The robotic dog companion of the titular character in the American computer animated television series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is named after Goddard.
- Goddard is a character in some written works of alternate history, including Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series and Allen M. Steele's V-S Day.
- Goddard Ave. in Norman, Oklahoma is named in his honor.
- Goddard Park in Auburn, Massachusetts is named in his honor, the park has two rockets and is adjacent to the Auburn Public Library.
- Goddard Drive, the main road through Malmstrom Air Force Base, is named in his honor.
- New Goddard prototype experimental reusable vertical launch and landing rocket from Blue Origin is named after Goddard.
- Rocket, an ale made by the Wormtown Brewery of Worcester, Massachusetts is named in Robert Goddard's honor.
Robert Goddard honored on a U.S. airmail stamp
Bronze plaque in Auburn, Massachusetts marking the town in which Dr. Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926.
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Patents of interest
Goddard received 214
patents for his work, of which 131 were awarded after his death. Among the most influential patents were:
- Patent 2,395,113 – "method for feeding combustion liquids to rocket apparatus" – R. H. Goddard's first patent
- Patent 2,397,657 – "control mechanism for a rocket apparatus" with "an outside starting device" – R. H. Goddard's second patent
- Patent 2,397,659 – "control mechanism for a rocket apparatus" with
"self-starting devices for intermittent operation and seals for fuel
pumps" – R. H. Goddard's third patent
- U.S. Patent 1,102,653 – Rocket apparatus – R. H. Goddard
- U.S. Patent 1,103,503 – Rocket apparatus – R. H. Goddard
- A U.S. Patent 2,511,979 A – Vacuum tube transportation system – E. C. Goddard
The Guggenheim Foundation and Goddard's estate filed suit in 1951
against the U.S. government for prior infringement of Goddard's first
three patents.
In 1960, the parties settled the suit, and the U.S. armed forces and
NASA paid out an award of $1 million: half of the award settlement went
to his wife, Esther. At that time, it was the largest government
settlement ever paid in a patent case.
The settlement amount exceeded the total amount of all the funding
that Goddard received for his work, throughout his entire career.
Other firsts
- First
American to explore mathematically the practicality of using rocket
propulsion to reach high altitudes and to traject to the Moon (1912)
- First to receive a U.S. patent on the idea of a multistage rocket (1914)
- First to prove, by actual static test, that rocket propulsion
operates in a vacuum, that it needs no air to push against (1915–1916)
- First to develop suitable lightweight pumps for liquid-fuel rockets (1923)
- First to develop and successfully fly a liquid-fuel rocket (March 16, 1926)
- First to launch a scientific payload (a barometer, a thermometer, and a camera) in a rocket flight (1929)
- First to use vanes in the rocket engine exhaust for guidance (1932)
- First to develop gyroscopic control apparatus for guiding rocket flight (1932)
- First to fire a liquid-fuel rocket faster than the speed of sound (1935)
- First to launch and successfully guide a rocket with an engine
pivoted by moving the tail section (as if on gimbals) controlled by a
gyro mechanism (1937)
Quotations
- "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of
yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." (From his high school graduation oration, "On Taking Things for Granted", June 1904)
- "On the afternoon of October 19, 1899, I climbed a tall cherry tree
and, armed with a saw which I still have, and a hatchet, started to trim
the dead limbs from the cherry tree. It was one of the quiet, colorful
afternoons of sheer beauty which we have in October in New England, and
as I looked towards 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. I
was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended for
existence at last seemed very purposive." (Written later, in an
autobiographical sketch)
- "Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace." (His response to a reporter's question following criticism in The New York Times, 1920)
- "It is not a simple matter to differentiate unsuccessful from
successful experiments. ... [Most] work that is finally successful is
the result of a series of unsuccessful tests in which difficulties are
gradually eliminated." (Written to a correspondent, early 1940s)
Timeline
