By the time of his death in August 1945 AD, Robert Goddard held some 214 patents, had dreamed large (envisioning a rocket reaching the Moon), had touched space (well, 2.6 kilometers in altitude), and is said to be the “father of rocketry.” His 1919 monograph “A Method for Reaching Extreme Altitudes” is considered the classic text of early rocket science. Not a bad legacy.

Goddard enrolled in the Worcester (Massachusetts) Polytechnic Institute in his hometown in 1907, where he became infamous for trying to set off a black-powder rocket from the laboratory basement. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1908, and subsequently took his masters and doctorate degrees in physics from Clark University. In 1912 he accepted a position at the Palmer Labs at Princeton, but soon returned to teach part-time at Clark University where he was free to pursue his “peculiar” interest in rocketry. In 1915, Goddard launched his first successful rocket, this time outside the building at Clark.

But by 1916 his research had become too costly for his modest salary to bear; having gained some interest through his writings, he convinced the Smithsonian Institute the next year to give him a five-year grant totaling 5000 dollars. Clark University also agreed to give him some funding. With this largess, which continued from various contributors, Goddard perfected his earlier ideas, among these two basic advances that made space travel possible: multi-stage rockets, and liquid rocket fuel.