In 1926, a 10-foot rocket rose just 41 feet from a Massachusetts farm

A replica of the world's first liquid propellant rocket, PC: Wikimedia Commons On March 16, 1926, on a snowy farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, physicist Robert H. Goddard set up a slim, 10-foot rocket he had nicknamed Nell on a launch frame in an open field. Fueled by gasoline and liquid oxygen, the rocket climbed just 41 feet into the air, flew for only 2.5 seconds, and crashed back to Earth 184 feet from where it started. The witnesses were Goddard, his wife Esther, crew chief Henry Sachs and Clark University physics professor Percy Roope. The flight attracted little attention at the time, and Goddard kept the achievement largely private for years. Yet that brief flight marked the world's first successful launch of a liquid-fueled rocket, demonstrating that a rocket could be powered by liquid propellants rather than relying solely on solid fuel. The breakthrough became a foundation for modern rocketry and, decades later, helped earn Goddard a place in the history of human spaceflight. Thirty-five years later, NASA formally honoured him by dedicating its Goddard Space Flight Centre in his name.Why Robert Goddard's 1926 rocket mattered more than its brief flight suggestedAccording to ...