[00:00.00]Today rocket launches and space missions are common.
[00:05.60]But in the early 1900s, space travel seemed like a dream.
[00:13.23]One of the most influential people in the field of rocket science was American Robert Goddard.
[00:22.67]The American space agency NASA describes Goddard as "the father of modern rocket propulsion."
[00:33.69]Robert Goddard once said that "the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."
[00:44.73]His scientific work gave hope to many dreams about space travel.
[00:52.41]He turned some of those dreams into reality.
[00:57.52]More than one hundred years ago, Goddard carried out studies and tests of rocket engines.
[01:06.52]He developed and flew many rockets that got their power from solid fuels: chemicals that formed a hard substance.
[01:18.89]In 1925, he made and tested the first rocket engine using a soft chemical fuel.
[01:28.86]The next year, he successfully launched the world's first liquid-fuel rocket.
[01:36.47]Many historians consider liquid-fuel rocket flight to be as important as the first airplane flight by the American brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright.
[01:50.94]Goddard's work proved that machines could travel outside of Earth's atmosphere and into space.
[02:00.72]During his early research, he received money and support from the U.S. Smithsonian Institution.
[02:10.88]The Smithsonian published several reports about his efforts.
[02:17.02]One publication, called "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," wrote about his search for ways to send weather recording instruments higher than balloons could fly.
[02:33.06]It described how he developed the mathematical theories for rocket flight.
[02:40.09]In that report, Goddard also suggested the possibility of a rocket someday reaching the moon.
[02:50.54]At the time, there was a big dispute in the press about this claim.
[02:56.72]Many people thought he was foolish for suggesting something that seemed so impossible.
[03:05.22]Many of Goddard's ideas are still used in rocket development.
[03:11.99]So, in a way, every rocket that flies today could be considered a Goddard rocket.
[03:21.05]I'm Bryan Lynn.
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Words in This Story
mission -n. a flight into space aimed at reaching a goal
propulsion - n. a force that pushes something forward
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