March 16, 1926: The First Liquid-Propellant Rocket Launch
Document Type
Document
Date
3-17-1926
Keywords
Robert Goddard, rocketry, liquid-propellant rocket, March 16 1926
Description
Robert Goddard's entry for March 17, 1926, from a newly digitized scan of Goddard's 1926 diary. This entry covers the events of the previous day, March 16, in which he achieved the world's first liquid-fuel rocket launch. Goddard kept one diary for each year, from 1898 until his death in 1945.
This entry is included towards the back of the diary, in the 'Memoranda' section, in order to have the space to fit his recounting of the day. The diary was a daily one and only left a few lines for each day. The transcription is as follows:
"The first flight with a rocket using liquid propellants was made yesterday at Aunt Effie's farm in Auburn. The day was clear and comparatively quiet. The anemometer on the Physics lab was turning leisurely when Mr. Sachs and I left in the morning, and was turning as leisurely when we returned at 5:30 P.M. Even though the release was pulled, the rocket did not rise at first, but the flame came out, and there was a steady roar. After a number of seconds it rose, slowly until it cleared the frame, and then at express-train speed, curving over to the left, and striking the ice and snow still going at a rapid rate. It looked almost magical as it rose, without any appreciably greater noise or flame, as if it said, ''I've been here long enough; I think I'll be going somewhere else, if you don't mind." Esther said that it looked like a fairy or an aesthetic dancer, as it started off. The sky was clear, for the most part, with large shadowy white clouds, but late in the afternoon there was a large pink cloud in the west, over which the sun shone. Some of the surprising things were the absence of smoke, the lack of very loud roar, and the smallness of the flame."
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Recommended Citation
Goddard, Robert H., "Robert Goddard's diary entry, March 17, 1926" (1926). March 16, 1926: The First Liquid-Propellant Rocket Launch. 31.
https://commons.clarku.edu/goddardlaunch/31
