Robert Goddard
1882 – 1945
Built and flew the first liquid-fueled rocket.
The American physicist who built and flew the first liquid-fueled rocket, on March 16, 1926, in a Massachusetts field. Mocked by the press for suggesting rockets could reach the Moon, he patented much of what modern rocketry uses.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is named for him. The specific-impulse and delta-v tools here trace to the day his equation left the test stand.
Portrait: a stylized blueprint-line rendering, not a photograph.
Contributions in the toolbox
- 1919
'A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes' — measured nozzle efficiency.
→ Specific Impulse - 1926
First liquid-fuel rocket flight, Auburn, Massachusetts.
→ Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation - 1926
First liquid-fuel flight — Isp leaves the test stand.
→ Specific Impulse