Astronomy Picture of the Day - Robert Goddard and Nell

NASA ^ | 28 Mar, 2026 | Image Credit: Esther Goddard, from the Clark University archive

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Robert H. Goddard, considered the father of modern rocketry, was born in Worcester Massachusetts in 1882. As a 16 year old, Goddard read H.G. Wells' science fiction classic "War Of The Worlds" and dreamed of space flight. By 1926 he had designed, built, and flown the world's first liquid fuel rocket. Launched 100 years ago on March 16, 1926 from his aunt Effie's farm in Auburn Massachusetts, the rocket, dubbed "Nell," rose to an altitude of 41 feet in a flight that lasted about 2 1/2 seconds. In this posed photo, Goddard stands next to the 10 foot tall rocket, holding the launch stand frame. To achieve a stable flight without the need for fins, the rocket's heavy motor was located at the top, fed by lines from liquid oxygen and gasoline fuel tanks at the bottom. Widely recognized as a gifted experimenter and engineering genius, his rockets were many years ahead of their time. Goddard was awarded over 200 patents in rocket technology, most of them after his death in 1945. A liquid fuel rocket constructed on principles developed by Goddard landed humans on the Moon in 1969.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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[ryderann]

I wanted to know if Goddard and vonBraun knew each other, and yes, they were friends.

https://www.famousscientists.org/robert-goddard/

[Zhang Fei]

Robert Goddard is about as clear an example of the scriptural snippet as you can get - A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, among his relatives, and in his own household. If Uncle Sugar had funded him, the US would have had ballistic missiles long before Germany. Of course, a missile program would have been a huge load for an already underfunded defense budget (1% of GDP) to carry.

[Paal Gulli]

Goddard an Billy Mitchell are the fathers of modern warfare. The ballistic missile (Goddard), strategic bombing and the aircraft carrier (Mitchell) collectively obliterated the safety and security of international borders.

[Regulator]

Von Braun would not have existed without Goddard.

It was Hermann Oberth’s earlier correspondence with Goddard when he and Von Braun started the Vereinigung fur Raumschifahrt (VfR) in 1929 that allowed Oberth and Von Braun to move forward so quickly.

When he was questioned about the V2 design by OSS in 1945, he asked them why they didn’t just talk to their own guy Goddard...since it was basically his design.

Oberth had independently derived the relevant equations for powered flight but lacked the practical capabilities like designing a turbopump. Goddard didn’t tell him everything because as the years went on, cooperating with Germany became increasingly dangerous. But their exchanges in the ‘20s had a tremendous impact on the Von Braun and the others in the VfR (like Hohmann, Riedel and the famous Willy Ley).

[Regulator]

Correction: the full name for the VfR was Verein für Raumschiffahrt , not “Vereinigung”.

[doorgunner69]

You try that today and the FBI will be swarming all over you/

[jmcenanly]

From humble beginnings to interstellar ambition, humanity's journey from first flight to revolutionary spacecraft spans a mere hundred years.

[dayglored]

Thank you SO much for posting this APOD on Goddard. I've been interested in rockets since I was a kid in the early 60's, although my own experiments were limited to Estes models, but I did get to help design attitude control systems for real LEO and GEO spacecraft in the 80's and 90's.

Tonight as a result of your post, I ended up reading Goddard's Wikipedia page and learned much more about him that I hadn't known previously. It really made my evening! :-)

[MtnClimber]

Thanks!