March 16, 1926: The First Liquid-Propellant Rocket Launch
Document Type
Document
Date
1926
Keywords
Robert Goddard, rocketry, liquid-propellant rocket, liquid oxygen tank, rocketry
Description
Excerpt from a report written by Robert Goddard tracing his development of the first liquid-propelled rocket. The full report covers 1921 to 1929. This excerpt contains most of part three which covers everything following December 6, 1925 (the day Robert Goddard achieved the first liquid-fuel rocket to lift its own weight) and May 1926. This excerpt contains everything up through March 16, 1926, the day Goddard saw the world's first successful launch of a liquid-propelled rocket.
The December 6, 1925 test used the pumps, engines, and other moving parts Goddard spent years working with and developing. Following this test, Goddard discarded the pumps, favoring a pressure-fed system in order to reduce the rocket's weight to a minimum. In his words, the test "demonstrated that the problems of pumping, governing, and control of heating were solved, but it also showed that a rocket on so small a scale as this model would not lift itself sufficiently to give a flight, including, as it did, devices which would not be necessary in a larger rocket".
It is important to note that many sources incorrectly claim that forgoing the pumps and engines is the breakthrough that made the December 6 lift possible, but this is untrue. Goddard writes in both his diary and this report about using pumps and engines in the December 6 test, as well as the realization that he would need to eliminate them in order to produce a light enough rocket to achieve that first launch.
In this report, Goddard provides photographs of each newly developed rocket part and/or component made between March 1923 to July 1929. He did not take photographs documenting each minor adjustment or iteration (for example the many variances of width, diameter, thickness and length of various materials). Every photograph of a rocket component aligning with the March 16, 1926 launch has been included in this March 16, 1926: The First Liquid-Propellant Rocket Launch series. This is the first time photographs of these 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 there is.
Recommended Citation
Goddard, Robert H., "Development of a liquid propelled rocket, section III: December 1925 - May 1926 [excerpt]" (1926). March 16, 1926: The First Liquid-Propellant Rocket Launch. 13.
https://commons.clarku.edu/goddardlaunch/13
