75 Years Ago, Goddard Launchs Space Age

karmma writes "The Boston Globe noted in this story that the space age began 75 years ago today with the launching of a rocket by Robert Goddard on a farm in Worcester, Mass. " I've been told by a couple people that it's actually Auburn, MA - I think they are right.

Comments

The legacy of Goddard, and the future.

[euroderf]

This shows that Amateurism has a place in space exploration. Back in the 30's, people were driven by pure ideals. Robert Goddard created a marvellous milestone in our century off his own back.

Later came the power politics of the 60's and 70's. The great achievements of that era, like Armstrong walking on the moon in '69, were soured by the terrible emotions and motives that underlay them. If only space exploration had remained an amateur effort, we may have got much farther, in a spiritual sense as well in a technical one.

The problem with the power politics, and the death struggles of Nations that lay beneath, is that it has made us impotent. We no longer believe that amateur space exploration is possible.

Well, the simple fact is that it can be done. Spirited men, untainted by cruel ideaologies, can go forth and challenge our conceptual ideas with needing taxpayers money or approval from Senatorial commissions. Right now, as we speak, people in England, France America and Japan are planning this very thing.

Later shall come the commercial interests, and they will up the scale and challenge even more fronteirs, but in the cold hearted interests of profit and influence.

All these different interests, the amateur, the Government and the corporation, are driven by prestige. But nationalism has no place in space exploration, and nor does profit seeking. The status seeking and curiosity of the private individual is what we want to encourage.

Do we, as a race, have the guts and imagination to pull this through? I hope so, but sometimes it seems that we just don't have the balls :/
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Re:Goddard was a racist

[volsung]

Yes, yes. And Jefferson had slaves, and Heisenberg was probably a Nazi-supporter. Minimizing people who were racist doesn't change the fact that they might have made a significant contribution to history. In fact, distorting your view of history (as you alude to in your comment about "wise historians") in order to say less about such people is not much different than the Nazis trying to write Jews out of the history books.

I too am sad that brilliant people like Goddard and Heisenberg supported the Nazis. But that doesn't change the fact that Goddard was influential to American rocketry, and that Heisenberg was pivotal in the creation of Quantum Mechanics.

(And to those of you in the audience: Before you YHBT YHL HAND me, I realize this might be a troll. At the same time, there are a lot of people in History and English at the college level who think like this poster.)

Funny how the real cool inventions are ignored

[drenehtsral]

They ignored Tesla when he said that alternating current was the way to go, and gave edison all the recognition for bringing electricity to the public, even though he tried and failed to do it with DC, and Tesla's proposed AC system ended up being the key. This is another case where the inventer of a cool technology is for the most part ignored. Society tends to do that. It seems to happen a lot too. I wonder what will be remembered and forgotten about our current computer technology and it's creators...

goddard in astro pic of the day

[po_boy]

That's why today's astronomy picture of the day features Robdrt Goddard and one of his funky looking rockets.

All your event are belong to us.

Goddard's Pendulum Rocket Fallacy

[Baldrson]

A rather entertaining fallacy to which Goddard's early designs "fell" was the pendulum rocket fallacy.

Also, the web site for the Goddard archives at Clark University has this FAQ that is worth reviewing.

Dr. Goddard's Highest Flight

[mr_gerbik]

I don't know if anyone is curious, but the article sparked the question for me: How successful were Goddard's launches? I found the following info here in Goddard FAQ.

Which of Dr. Goddard's rockets flew the highest?
Dr. Goddard launched rocket L-13 on March 26, 1937 and the peak altitude that it reached was approximately 1.7 miles off of the ground in 22.3 seconds. By comparison, his first rocket, which he launched on March 16, 1926, reached an altitude of only 41 feet and landed 184 feet away 2.5 seconds after it was launched.

Pah!

[gowen]

Goddards early rocket flights were faked. I saw it on the FOX network.

Rocket age

[Rubyflame]

That's rocket age. Not space age. The space age began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik.