American Inventors: Rocket Scientist Robert Goddard

01Today, rocket launches and space missions are common, but in the early 1900s, space travel seemed like a dream.

02One of the most influential people in the field of rocket science was American Robert Goddard.

03The American space agency NASA describes Goddard as the father of modern rocket propulsion.

04Robert Goddard once said that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.

05His scientific work gave hope to many dreams about space travel.

06He turned some of those dreams into reality.

07More than 100 years ago, Goddard carried out studies and tests of rocket engines.

08He developed and flew many rockets that got their power from solid fuels, chemicals that formed a hard substance.

09In 1925, he made and tested the first rocket engine using a soft chemical fuel.

10The next year, he successfully launched the world's first liquid fuel rocket.

11Many historians consider liquid fuel rocket flight to be as important as the first airplane flight by the American brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright.

12Goddard's work proved that machines could travel outside of Earth's atmosphere and into space.

13During his early research, he received money and support from the U.S.

14Smithsonian Institution.

15The Smithsonian published several reports about his efforts.

16One publication, called A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, wrote about his search for ways to send weather recording instruments higher than balloons could fly.

17It described how he developed the mathematical theories for rocket flight.

18In that report, Goddard also suggested the possibility of a rocket someday reaching the moon.

19At the time, there was a big dispute in the press about this claim.

20Many people thought he was foolish for suggesting something that seemed so impossible.

21Many of Goddard's ideas are still used in rocket development.

22So, in a way, every rocket that flies today could be considered a Goddard rocket.

23I'm Brian Lynn.