It’s been a century since a two-second rocket flight in Massachusetts started the liquid rocket fuel revolution. Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), who led the flight, is considered to be one of the founders of modern rocketry, along with Hermann Oberth in Germany and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in Russia. Goddard designed, built and tested the first rocket to fly on liquid fuel – launching 100 years ago on March 16, 1926.
And as we shall explore in more detail later, much of Goddard’s rocket the work was supported and promoted (including for four decades, posthumously) by his wife, Esther—who kept the records, put out literal fires, and diligently followed the patent office for dozens of filings.
“With this first flight — while it was, by today’s standards, it seems pretty unimpressive to a lot of people — (it proved) the idea that you could control a liquid-fueled rocket,” Erin Gregory, curator of aviation and space at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, told Space.com. “That was the proving ground; it could be done. It was clear there were adjustments that had to be made, but the fact (was) that it could be done.”
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From science fiction to reality
Goddard was inspired by science fiction, having read HG Wells and Jules Verne (among others) while growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts. “Goddard’s story is one of inspiration, of relentlessly pursuing one’s dreams and making them come true,” said Kevin Schindler, a historian and public information officer at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., in Flagstaff, Ariz.
“Then, at the age of 17 and while he was up in a cherry tree trimming the branches, (he was) and had a dreamlike experience that inspired him for the rest of his life to develop a means of traveling to space,” added Schindler, who recently published “Robert Goddard’s Massachusetts” with Charles Slatkin (Arcadia Publishing, 3 Mar. 2026).
Goddard’s early powder rocket work took place in collaboration with Clark University, where he received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. His first powder rocket was launched there at his own expense in 1915, although he eventually received financial support from the Smithsonian Institution and Clark University, among others, and his work was published in 1919.
Regarding his liquid rocket research, one of Goddard’s most notable designs, still in use today, was to allow very cold liquid oxygen to cool a rocket combustion chamber as the oxygen left the fuel tank. His historic flight in 1926 in Auburn, Massachusetts saw a liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket fly 41 feet in height and return to Earth in about 2.5 seconds.
Goddard later received financial support from aviator Charles Lindbergh, the Guggenheim family and the US military, and he also moved to Roswell, New Mexico – then sparsely populated in the 1930s, which was better for rocket flights. He launched more than two dozen rockets before dying of throat cancer in 1945, 12 years before Sputnik was the first satellite to reach space – not coincidentally on a liquid-fueled rocket. Goddard’s name later became associated with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center of Maryland, among other honors.
Robert Goddard rockets
Some of the innovations Goddard was known for include:
- Use of science fiction and thought experiments: Many scientists derive their designs from imagination, often inspired by the things they read or by playing with physics (sometimes by trying to model the ridiculous into the practical). In other words, Gregory pointed out, Goddard “was really influenced by science fiction, but thought about it in a very scientific way.” For example, Goddard ruled out launch methods by 1908 including “magnetic, atomic, cannon, flywheel and solid fuel” American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) pointed out. Dismissing the cannon idea (as it produces ridiculous G-forces on astronauts) was particularly notable, Gregory added, because it was famously used to send astronauts to the moon in Jules Vernes’ 1865 science fiction book “From the Earth to the Moon” — an important science-fiction touchstone for Goddard’s generation.
- Experimenting with rocket stability: For his first liquid rocket flight, Goddard tried to put the engine on top of the fuel and oxidizer tanks in the belief that it would create more stability, according to NASA. After flight tests, Goddard moved the engines below the propellant tanks, which “simplified the overall design”, and instead of stability, added movable vanes to the engine exhaust and gyroscopes. “He was one of the very first people to take the theoretical ideas around rocketry and actually turn them into an experiment and really apply the scientific methods and experimentation,” Gregory said. Not only that, she pointed out, Goddard was “very methodical about it, and put it into practice.”
- Develop the concept of multi-stage rockets: It sounds simple and obvious today, as it is a staple of the rocket industry, but multi-stage rockets were extensively researched by Goddard when the idea was new. “This involved multiple fuel tanks rather than a single tank,” Schindler said. “As fuel in a tank was used up, it would be discarded, thereby throwing the rocket off heavy but empty tanks. The lighter rocket thus had less weight and could achieve longer and higher flight.”
- Engine cooling techniques. “Goddard found that combustion chambers tended to overheat and melt, so he developed a couple of engine cooling techniques to prevent this,” Schindler said. “The first method he called curtain cooling, also known as a type of film cooling. This technique involved spraying fuel—Goddard used gasoline—on the inside of the chamber’s walls, creating a protective cooler layer that reduced the chances of the chamber overheating. This method was not reliable, and Goddard later developed a second technique, known as regenerative walls in the cooling chamber. The chamber before it enters the chamber. This has the double result of cooling the chamber walls and thus reducing the chances of the walls overheating and melting, while also preheating the propellant, resulting in more efficient combustion.
- Other experiments to prove design: This included demonstrations showing that a rocket will work in a vacuum (1916) and the launch of the first rocket with a scientific payload (1929), Schindler said. Goddard’s work also included improving guidance and control, and developing propellant feeding systems: “In Goddard’s early liquid-fueled rockets, he fed propellant into the combustion chamber with a pressure-fed system. Gas pressure—first Goddard used liquid oxygen—forced the propellants into the chamber. Later, this technique could be supplied with larger ones, so Goddard developed enough to supply rockets. experimented with centrifugal rocket pumps—predecessors to today’s massive turbopumps—that used energy generated from a rapidly rotating disk to force the propellant into the chamber.”
Robert Goddard’s legacy
Goddard was able to overcome many obstacles in his career, mainly related to funding and the lack of modern rocket materials we are used to. Working in a small shop with only a few employees, he did most of the design and testing himself. “Goddard generally did not want to collaborate with anyone outside his small circle. If he had, he would have had access to other ideas, materials and facilities, which would probably have accelerated his rocket development,” Schindler said. That said, Goddard faced ridicule for some of his early ideas (most famously mocked by the New York Times in a 1920 editorial only retracted below Apollo 11 in 1969), so that may have played into his decision to work alone.
Technical obstacles arose, often due to lack of material or costs. Schindler said Goddard could not use light structures, or the propellant he preferred (liquid hydrogen) due to availability and cost. Fuel pumps were also difficult to construct, mostly due to (again) the materials problem. “His engines often exploded or burned due to uneven combustion,” Schindler said.
That said, Schindler paid tribute to Goddard’s innovation, which is still used today: “Engineers have taken his ideas as well as developed their own, as well as utilized materials not available to Goddard, to build today’s advanced rockets,” he said. And the early astronauts knew it, said Schindler, as no less a person than Buzz Aldrin— the second person to walk on the moon, during Apollo 11—took an autobiography of Robert Goddard with him to the lunar surface in July 1969.
Esther Goddard: Chronicler, photographer, patent applicant for Robert Goddard
Goddard’s legacy also rests heavily on the work of his wife, Esther. “Ester deciphered his notes – which she alone could read – photographed his work, put out the brush fires that resulted from his launch, kept his account books, sewed the parachutes he used at launch and never wavered in her lifelong support,” The Goddard Memorial Association stated.
It was also thanks to Esther that we have photos of Robert and his rocket. “The vast majority of these photographs were taken by Esther herself. Esther was an avid camerawoman and photographer, and during Robert’s lifetime she meticulously documented his career in rocketry – from experiments and instruments to processes and workspaces,” Clark University stated about her work.
After Robert died, his wife continued to champion his legacy, which became important as the Space Age began. Attention shifted largely to German rocket scientists which were active in World War II and went on to assist both the early Soviet and American space programs. “She just made sure his legacy wasn’t forgotten after World War II, which it kind of would have been because — of course — the German scientists kind of take center stage after that in terms of rocketry,” Gregory said.
Esther donated more than 60 items to the Smithsonian Institution, organized his papers and filed posthumous patents on his work, the Smithsonian’s It enlightened the National Air and Space Museum. In fact, the Goddard Memorial Association notes, Esther secured the vast majority after Robert died: Esther received approval for 131 during this period, out of 214 in total.
Gregory said the 100th anniversary is a good time not only to reflect on Robert, but the team he had with his wife that made the work possible. Citing Esther’s name helps counteract the “Matilda effect,” said Gregory, who is one period named by historian Margaret Rossiter in reference to how women’s contributions are often overlooked in history. (“Matilda” is a reference to suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage.)
Citing the larger teams behind well-known scientific figures, Gregory said, is often an opportunity to bring newer voices into the spotlight. “I hope that it starts to be corrected for a lot of them. A little vindication,” she said.
