The Enigma of Robert H. Goddard

摘要

Robert H. Goddard has been characterized both as "the father of modern rocketry" and as a man who, because of his aloofness, "had meager influence on contemporaries." As these conflicting views suggest, despite the rather extensive literature on this important rocket pioneer he remains something of a mystery. The aim of this article is not to decide which view is correct. Both are valid as far as they go. As the first person known to have launched a liquid-propellant rocket (in 1926), Goddard deserves, arguably, to be acknowledged as in some sense the progenitor of modern rocketry. Yet, as a loner who avoided publicity and remained highly secretive about most of the technical details of his liquid-propellant rockets, he failed to have more than an inspirational influence on most specific developments in modern rocketry. This is so even though he anticipated a great many of these developments in the patented components of his rockets.