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March 16, 1926: The First Liquid-Propellant Rocket Launch
March 16, 1926 marks the day Robert Hutchings Goddard successfully launched the world's first liquid-propellant rocket (fueled with liquid oxygen and gasoline). Goddard had been working to achieve liquid-fuel propulsion since 1921 and had written about its feasibility as far back as 1909. Here, you will learn about the months leading to that historic day and see materials from the Robert & Esther Goddard Papers at Clark University's Archives & Special Collections that relate to or originate from March 16, 1926.
In his "Report on the Development of Liquid Propelled Rocket", Goddard provided a photographic inventory (courtesy of Esther Goddard, who documented her husband's work through photography and home videos) of each rocket component included in the March 16, 1926 launch. This is the first time photographs of these rocket parts have been made available for online viewing, and together they make up the closest and most granular visual documentation of the March 16, 1926 rocket's construction that there is.
Sources:
The Papers of Robert Hutchings Goddard. Clark University Archive. Clark University. Worcester, MA.
Clary, David A. Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age. Hyperion, 2003.