80 Years Ago
Published on Mar 16, 2006 at 7:09 pm.
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Filed under astronomers, rockets.
March 16, 1926, Robert Goddard launched the first liquid fueled rocket. It didn’t really go very far, just a few feet, but it proved that liquid fuels could be used to propel rockets. Up to that time, only solid fuel rockets had been constructed. His next rocket went a bit farther, ending up in the neighbor’s yard. Not long afterwards, Goddard moved his rocket operations to the New Mexico desert, near Roswell, with his work there being funded by the Guggenheim Foundation. Most liquid fueled rockets since his time have been extensions of his ideas.
Goddard is often cited as the father of American rocketry, and it would be hard to dispute this claim. However, people sometimes forget that he did not invent rockets, nor was he the only person working with rockets in his day. Rockets have been in existence for about a thousand years, thought the first rockets, developed by the Chinese, were simply controlled burning of gunpowder to make fireworks. It didn’t take long for rockets to be used in war to set fire to enemy installations. However, solid rockets have their limitations. I don’t want to go into all of the issues of rockets here, but solid rockets once lit burn until they run out of fuel, and until the last few decades, they burned their fuel in a somewhat non-uniform manner. Also, it has only been recently that variable thrust was possible with solid rockets, and even today it is only possible in a predetermined manner. They can not respond to changing conditions. Also, solid rocket motors can not be stopped and started again. These limitations led Konstantin Tsiolkovsky to propose liquid fueled rockets. Though he worked out the basic theory of liquid fueled rockets, he never built one. That task was finally accomplished by Goddard. Almost immediately, other rocket enthusiasts quickly jumped to adopt Goddard’s techniques. Bigger and better liquid fueled rockets were developed.
In his day, Goddard did not really receive nearly the acclaim that he has gotten since. Most of the attention went to others. In Europe, rocket scientists worked together in rocket societies to share knowledge, experience, and expenses. One such group, the German rocket society, produced such prominent rocket scientists as Hermann Oberth and Wernher von Braun. In the United States, Goddard continued to work on his own. However, Theodore von Karman formed and headed up a working group in southern California to study and develop rockets that was also funded by the Guggenheim Foundation. Von Karman’s group eventually evolved into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Interestingly, von Karman’s group got more attention than did Goddard. Part of this may have been location. Goddard was working in a remote desert, and he seldom communicated his work to anyone other than fellow rocket scientists. Von Karman’s group was in southern California, near major population centers, and he did regularly communicate his work to media and government officials. Another difference is the approach that both rocket men had. Goddard seemed to be interested solely in developing better rockets for the sake of flying rockets. Von Karman, though, frequently targeted his research to develop rockets that did something … atmospheric studies for example. With war looming in the late 1930’s, von Karman’s team began developing military uses for rockets: rocket propelled grenades, rocket assisted takeoffs for aircraft, battlefield rockets, and even single use rocket launchers for infantrymen (a device that evolved into the bazooka).   Another difference was choice of labels. Goddard described his work as rocket science, which it was. However, in those days, pulp science fiction was filled with poorly written stories of rocketships. The American public mentally associated the term “rocket†with pulp science fiction. So, “rocket science†was greeted with smirks, much like “cold fusion†is today. Knowing this, von Karman cleverly described his work as “jet propulsion,â€Â which was not altogether wrong, since rockets propel themselves through the jets of hot gasses coming from them. That is why the von Karman’s facility became known as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Both von Karman and Goddard are great names in American rocketry. In their day, von Karman got more attention, and most people were only dimly aware of Goddard’s work. However, now the tables are turned. Today, anyone who knows anything about rockets has heard of Goddard, but von Karman’s work is seldom mentioned. For some reason, we seem to feel that all the glory should go to one or the other. Really, both were instrumental in the development of American rocketry.
-Astroprof
