| MODERN ROCKET PROPULSION | ||
Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) began work on rocket development in 1909 and is credited with launching the world's first liquid-propellant rocket in 1926. He eventually held 214 patents in rocketry and developed many technologies later used on large rockets and missiles (film cooling, gyroscopically controlled vanes, and a variable-thrust rocket motors). However, only the last of these contributed directly to rocketry in the United States. Nonetheless, Goddard's liquid fuel principles helped achieve the first landing on the moon in 1969. NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center near Washington D.C. is named for him. |
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