Highlights From the Life of Robert H. Goddard

Date	Age	Event
1882, October 5		Born in Worcester, Massachusetts
1883	1	Family moved to Boston
1888-1898	6-16	Attended Mount Pleasant, Hugh O'Brien, and English High Schools in Boston
1889	7	Began thinking about flight into outer space
1898	16	Moved with family to Maple Hill, Worcester
1899, October 19	17	"Anniversary Day" experienced vision of space travel while climbing cherry tree; began keeping notebooks of work and ideas
1900, fall	18	Attended morning classes at Becker Business College for a few months where he acquired a fine Spencerian Script until he became too ill to continue
1899-1901	17-19	Kept from school by illness (TB)
1901-1904	19-22	Student, South High School, Worcester
1904-1908	22-26	Student, WPI, B.S. 1908
1908-1909	26-27	Instructor of Physics, WPI, special student in Physics, Clark U.
1909-1911	27-29	Fellow in Physics, Clark University, Master's thesis "Theory of Diffraction", 1910; Ph.D. thesis "On the Conduction of Electricity at Contacts of Dissimilar Solids", 1911.
1911-1912 1914-1915 1918-1920	29-30 32-33 36-38	Honorary Fellow in Physics, Clark U.
1912	30	First explored mathematically the practicality of using rocket power to reach high altitudes and escape velocity
1912-1913	30-31	Research Instructor in Physics, Princeton U.
1913-1914	31-32	Illness--TB--not accepted at Rutland sanitarium--too ill, given one week to live
1914, July	32	Awarded first two patents for a rocket apparatus: A Liquid Fuel Gun Rocket; and a Multistage Step Rocket
1914-1915	32-33	Instructor in Physics, Clark College
1914	32	test launched rockets in the early morning over Coe's Pond
1915-1919	33-37	Assistant Professor, Clark College
1919-1920	37-38	Associate Professor, Clark College
1915	33	First proved experimentally that a rocket will provide thrust in a vacuum
1917, January 5	35	Received first financial assistance from the Smithsonian Institution ($5,000 from Hodgkins Fund); Further grants made through 1929 and in 1932
1917-1918	35-36	Developed the basis for the rocket weapon, the Bazooka, done for U.S. Army signal Corps and ordinance Department, in the Magnetic Lab at WPI, at Clark U. and later at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in California. Successfully demonstrated at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds on Nov. 10, 1918, before representatives of the armed services
1919	37	First to publish in the U.S. a basic mathematical theory underlying rocket propulsion and rocket flight, together with results of experiments with solid-propellant rockets, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes", Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 71, No. 2
1920-1923	38-41	Part-Time consultant on solid propellant rocket weapons for U.S. Government at Indian Head, Maryland
1920-1925	38-43	First to develop a rocket motor using liquid propellants (liquid oxygen and gasoline)
1920-1943, August 5	38-61	Professor, Clark University
1923-1943	41-61	Director of Physical Laboratories, Clark University
1924, June 21	42	Married Esther Christine Kisk
1925	43	Static test at Clark U.; Liquid-propellant rocket lifted its own weight for first time
1926, March 16	44	First to develop and launch a liquid-propellant rocket, at Auburn, MA
1929, July 17	47	Tested first rocket containing instruments at Auburn, MA, which attracted wide public attention
1929, November 23	47	First meeting with Charles A. Lindbergh
1930, July 10-1932	48-50	First two year grant from Daniel Guggenheim, began conducting full time rocket research at Roswell, New Mexico (on leave of absence from Clark U.)
1932	50	First developed gyro stabilization apparatus for rockets
1932	50	First used deflector vanes in the blast of the rocket motor as a method of stabilizing and guiding rockets
1932-1934	50-52	Teaching at Clark U., and continued research financed by the Smithsonian Institution and the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation
1934-1942	52-60	"A" series rocket tests (14-test series; rockets at this stage were about 15 feet long)
1935, March 8	53	First to launch a liquid propellant rocket which attained a speed greater than that of sound (700 mph)
1935	53	Rocket reached altitude of 7500 feet
1936, March 16	54	Publication of "Liquid Propellant Rocket Development," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 95, No. 3
1936-1938	54-56	"L" series rocket tests (30-test series; rockets were about 18 feet long)
1937	55	Rocket reached height of 9000 feet
1938-1941	56-59	"P" series rocket tests (This 36-test series represents his last flight rockets; rockets averaged about 22 feet in length)
1942-1945	60-63	Director of Research, Navy Dept., Bureau of Aeronautics developing jet-assisted takeoff and variable thrust liquid propellant rockets, at Roswell, New Mexico and Annapolis, Maryland
1943-1945	58-60	Consulting Engineer, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Caldwell, New Jersey
1944-1945	62-63	Director, American Rocket Society
1945, June 2	63	Received honorary Doctor of Science degree, Clark U.
1945, August 10	63	Died of throat cancer, Baltimore, Maryland. Buried in Hope Cemetery, Worcester, MA

Professional Memberships:

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellow of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences
Member of the American Physical Society
American Meteorological Society
American Rocket Society; National Aeronautics Association
Geophysical Union
American Institute of Social Sciences
Sigma Xi

Other Membership:

Sigma Alpha Epsilon

Time line information is taken from:

The Chronological History of the Scientific Accomplishments of Robert H. Goddard, WPI (last modified 5/22/97)
The Chronological History of the Career of Robert H. Goddard, WPI (last modified 5/22/97)
Dr. Robert H. Goddard Biographical Note, Clark University (last updated 6/29/98)