Robert goddard biography contribution to rocketry

Robert Hutchings Goddard — is considered the father of modern rocket propulsion. A physicist of great insight, Goddard also had a unique genius for invention. Robert Hutchings Goddard is considered the father of modern rocket propulsion. By , Goddard had constructed and successfully tested the first rocket using liquid fuel.

Only through modest subsidies from the Smithsonian Institution and the Daniel Guggenheim Foundation, as well as the leaves of absence granted him by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute of Clark University, was Goddard able to sustain his lifetime of devoted research and testing. Goddard first obtained public notice in in a cloud of smoke from a powder rocket fired in the basement of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute physics building.

Why did robert goddard invent the rocket

School officials took an immediate interest in the work of student Goddard. He thus began his lifetime of dedicated work. In , Goddard received two U. One was for a rocket using liquid fuel. The other was for a two- or three-stage rocket using solid fuel. At his own expense, he began to make systematic studies about propulsion provided by various types of gunpowder.