Goddard Rocket Launching Site
| Goddard Rocket Launching Site | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark | |||
 Robert Goddard and a liquid fuel rocket, 1926 |
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| location | Auburn , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 13 '6 " N , 71 ° 48' 46" W | ||
| Built | 1926 | ||
| NRHP number | 66000654 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | November 13, 1966 | ||
| Declared as an NHL | November 13, 1966 | ||
The Goddard Rocket Launching Site commemorates the place where the scientist Robert Goddard successfully launched a liquid fuel- powered rocket for the first time in the world in 1926 . The former outdoor area of his laboratory is now part of the Pakachoag golf course in Auburn in the state of Massachusetts in the United States and is only marked by a monument. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1966 .
History and historical significance
The area northeast of downtown Auburn belonged to Asa Ward Farm until the late 1920s and was an open field before the Ward family gave up farming and the 54.2 acres (21.9 hectares ) golf course built, which still exists today. The approximately 1.2 m high obelisk monument is located in the middle between the tee and the green of the 9th fairway and thus around 300 m from Upland Street. The American Rocket Society , now part of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics , erected a second monument near the road in July 1960 in the form of a rectangular granite slab .
Born in Worcester in 1882 , Goddard studied at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clark University , where he also received his doctorate. He was interested in rocket science from an early age and did a variety of calculations. In 1914 he was awarded two patents that still play an important role in rocket design today. He carried out experiments and studies on propulsion technology at his own expense and proved both mathematically and practically that a rocket propulsion system also works in a vacuum . After he had used up his funds, he sent his previous results to the Smithsonian Institution in 1916 , which then gave him $ 5,000 (now about $ 120,000) to continue his research. From 1914 to 1917 he was awarded a total of 70 patents. During the First World War he worked briefly for the American military and returned to the university in 1919.
Shortly thereafter, Goddard published his findings in an article that is now considered a classic. His idea, described there, that one could also reach the moon with the help of rocket technology, led to extensive discussions about it and earned him the nickname "moon-rocket man" or "Moony". Regardless of this, he continued his experiments with liquid fuels and on March 16, 1926 was able to successfully launch a liquid-fuel-powered rocket for the first time in the world, which reached an altitude of 41 ft (12.5 m ) and flew for 2.5 seconds until it fell to the ground about 56 meters from the starting point.
The last rocket launch carried out by Goddard from this position on July 17, 1929 went down in history: for the first time in the world, a rocket carried a payload in the form of a barometer , thermometer and camera. The rocket, which is over three meters in size, sank to the ground with a parachute, so that the data recorded by the instruments could be successfully read out. The attention this generated finally reached Charles Lindbergh , who helped Goddard raise funds from the Guggenheim Foundation for his research.
Goddard moved his laboratory to Roswell , New Mexico , where on December 30, 1930, he let a roughly 3.3 m rocket ascend 2,000 ft (609.6 m), which reached a speed of over 800 km / h. In 1935 he launched the first rocket equipped with a gyroscope , which reached an altitude of 4,800 ft (1,463 m). In 1941 he was enlisted by the United States Navy and supported the development of the bazooka . It was only with the development of the German V-2 that Goddard's findings were seriously examined by American scientists.
See also
literature
- Polly M. Rettig, Horace J. Sheely, S. Sydney Bradford: National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. (PDF) United States Department of the Interior , National Park Service , May 19, 1975, accessed January 12, 2017 .
- Robert Hutchings Goddard: The papers of Robert H. Goddard, including the reports to the Smithsonian Institution and the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation . McGraw-Hill, New York 1970, OCLC 317819077 .
- Milton Lehman: This high man - the life of Robert H. Goddard . Farrar, Straus, New York 1963, OCLC 411271 .
- Willy Ley: Satellites, rockets, and outer space . New American Library, New York 1962, OCLC 2117612 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
- ↑ cf. Rettig et al., P. 2.
- ↑ cf. Rettig et al., P. 3.
- ^ Robert Goddard: A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes . In: Smithsonian Institution (Ed.): Miscellaneous Collections . Vol. 71. Smithsonian Institution, 1919, ISSN 0096-8749 , OCLC 1376204 (English).
- ↑ cf. Rettig et al., P. 5.
- ↑ a b cf. Rettig et al., P. 6.