| From theory through laboratory demonstration through design, construction, test flight, and use of payload, Robert H. Goddard must rank as the U.S. pioneer in modern rocketry. The famous photo at the right shows Goddard beside his first successful liquid-fuel rocket, flown March 16, 1926. Years later, in the spring of 1941, he had progressed to larger, more complex models, like the one shown below in his workshop at Mescalero Ranch, Roswell, N. Mex., with his assistants. In December 1944, Goddard sent this photo to his long-time benefactor Harry F. Guggenheim with the comment, "It is practically identical with the German V–2 rocket." |  |
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