At first glance, Pakachoag Golf Course in Auburn, Massachusetts, appears like any other with manicured landscapes and ducks bobbing in ponds. But walk from the parking lot to the ninth hole and you'll find a small obelisk revealing the property has a history that extends far beyond golf.
On March 16, 1926, this was the launch site of the world's first modern rocket.
Local scientist Robert Goddard had been experimenting with the design for years, attracting national attention — and the mockery that came with it. As it sat ready for launch on what was then a cabbage farm, the rocket almost looked jerry-rigged. It consisted of metal tubes that were welded together and featured a novel fuel of gasoline and liquid oxygen.
But once Goddard's assistant lit the fuse, the rocket rose 41 feet in 2.5 seconds. The technology would go on to enable countless missions beyond Earth's atmosphere.
"It was humanity's first steps toward seeking out what was in space," said Charles Slatkin, who directs the nonprofit, The Wonder Mission, and is preserving Goddard's former home in Worcester, Massachusetts, not far from what's now the golf course. Slatkin called Goddard "the father of modern rocketry."
Liquid vs. solid fuel rockets
At the turn of the 20th century, historians say the idea of traveling to outer space was little more than science fiction. Novels like "From the Earth to the Moon" and "War of the Worlds" imagined what space and extraterrestrial life could be like. Still, most people didn't believe travel beyond Earth was possible.
Goddard was an exception. He was fascinated with space.
One night as a teenager, he was pruning a cherry tree in his Worcester backyard when he looked up at the star-filled sky and went into a trance.
"He has this epiphany and writes in his diary, 'I imagine how wonderful it would be to someday build a device to take us to Mars and beyond,"' Slatkin said. "And he continues to write, 'I came down from that tree a different boy and life had purpose.'"
Goddard went on to study physics and aeronautics, first as a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and later as a professor at Clark University. At one point, he contracted severe tuberculosis, and a doctor gave him just a few weeks to live. But miraculously, he overcame the illness and continued his research.
He ultimately became convinced that the way to reach space was with a rocket. At the time, rockets did exist, but they were more like fireworks. Kevin Schindler, a space historian with the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, said those earlier models mainly used gunpowder — also known as solid fuel — which Goddard realized had a major limitation.
"Solid fuel, as we knew it back then, didn't have enough power to launch a big vehicle into space," Schindler said. "We had to use liquid fuel. Like liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, kerosene and such."
Building a rocket with liquid fuel was a lot more complicated. But Goddard kept testing and knew he was on to something, even as other people thought otherwise.
In 1920, the Smithsonian Institution announced a grant to support his experiments. Newspapers picked up the story, telling of Goddard's plans to study the upper atmosphere and, eventually, fire a rocket capable of striking the moon. In a press statement at the time, the Smithsonian said the test "would be of little obvious scientific value" but appeal to public interest. And that it did.
"People started calling him the moon man," Schindler said. "And even colleagues would say, 'Hey, Bob, how's the moon rocket business going?' And I think he was a little sensitive to that."
It didn't help that immediately after the Smithsonian announcement, the New York Times published an editorial disputing that a rocket could work in space. The Times suggested Goddard "lacked the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
Goddard's legacy
There was little fanfare when Goddard launched his first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926. Slatkin said even Goddard saw it as just a small step toward his goal of figuring out how to reach space.
He kept building and testing rockets alongside his wife, Esther, who transcribed his notes and took photos and videos of the launches. Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and the Guggenheim family heard about his work and helped him fund tests in Roswell, New Mexico, where he had more space to launch rockets. Goddard eventually pioneered other common features of rockets today — such as the nose cone at the top, fins at the bottom, and the gyroscope that helps them remain stable while in flight.
Still throughout the 1930s and '40s, a lot of people never learned about Goddard and his rockets. Historians say that's because he was secretive, and for a while, the U.S. government overlooked his research because it was preoccupied with building the atomic bomb.
Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and commercial astronaut, believes Goddard's work with rockets was so sophisticated that it was hard for people to appreciate.
"He was just further ahead of his time," Stern said. "Rocketry really probably shouldn't have come about until the mid-20th century."
Over time, Goddard received more credit as the U.S. government relied on his research during the space race against the Soviet Union. NASA named its space flight center in Maryland after him, and the New York Times issued a correction for its editorial that ridiculed him. Buzz Aldrin even carried a copy of Goddard's autobiography in his pocket when he walked on the moon in 1969.
Today, Goddard's legacy extends beyond space travel. That's because his rocket technology helped with the development of missiles and other weapons of war. Still, Stern and planetary scientist Makenzie Lystrup say almost every pivotal invention throughout history has been exploited in one way or another. Plus, they note that Goddard's intention was clear from the beginning.
Lystrup, a former director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said she hopes the centennial of that first rocket launch will serve as an opportunity for more people to appreciate his work and everything the space industry has achieved since then.
"In 100 years, to go from going to other planets being a dream to now we have a spacecraft going to Jupiter's moon Europa," she said, "it's kind of beyond imagination. Goddard's the one who made that possible."
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