100th Anniversary of Goddard's First Liquid Rocket

One hundred years ago, on March 16, 1926, American physicist and inventor Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket from a farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, a modest experiment that ignited the era of modern rocketry and space exploration.

The rocket, powered by a combination of liquid oxygen and gasoline, lifted off from the property of Goddard's aunt, Effie. Dubbed Nell in some accounts, the device rose just 41 feet into the air before descending after a mere 2.5 seconds, landing 184 feet away in a nearby cabbage patch. Though brief and low-altitude, the test proved that liquid propellants could generate controlled thrust, a breakthrough Goddard had theorized years earlier in his 1919 paper, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," published by the Smithsonian Institution.

Goddard, born in Massachusetts in 1882, drew early inspiration from science fiction authors like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. At age 17, while trimming branches in a cherry tree, he envisioned human travel to other worlds, fueling a lifelong pursuit. He earned advanced degrees from Clark University, where he began experimenting with powder rockets at his own expense. By 1914, he had...