Goddard Rockets: May 1926 and “Hoopskirt,” 1928
The American pioneer of astronautics, Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) not only outlined the physical principles that would govern space flight, but he also constructed and tested many rocket engines, airframes, control devices, and guidance mechanisms between 1926 and 1942.
Goddard held a doctorate in physics, and was a professor at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. The Smithsonian Institution began funding Goddard’s experiments as early as 1917 and published his first major work, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, in 1919.
Goddard was not only a trained scientist, but a talented and ingenious engineer as well. On March 16, 1926, he launched the world’s first liquid-propellant rocket. By 1930, he had established a rocket test facility at Mescalero Ranch, near Roswell, New Mexico. Here, he conducted research, funded by the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation, on rocket power plants, pumps and fuel systems, control mechanisms, and other vital elements of the modern rocket.