[280] Rocket leaving tower, using pumps for propellants, August 9 1940

Photographer

Esther C. Goddard

Preview

Description

Photograph of the P23 rocket leaving the launching tower, the first flight using pumps as propellants, August 9, 1940. This still was taken from a piece of 16mm film that Esther shot (Robert bought his wife a movie camera earlier that year). Esther would often extract still images from her own footage. This footage can be seen in Reel 10 of The Goddard Rocket Film Reels. After many setbacks and frustrations, a pump-fed rocket flight was successfully carried out. Its velocity was low, its speed 10-15 mph, and its altitude just 300 feet. Robert Goddard would continue to conduct static tests. While this test was the first successful flight of the P-Series, it mainly exposed ongoing challenges working with much larger turbine rockets.

By 1938, Robert Goddard felt he had covered everything needed for successful high-flying rockets -- except for a turbine that could drive high-speed pumps to force propellants into the chamber. This would define his work over the next several years. The P-Series of tests Goddard would conduct took place from January 1939 into October of 1941.

P1-P4 used two pump models that had been tested during the preceding months to conduct four proving-stand tests. The results from P1-P4 concluded that a small chamber, or gas generator, producing warm oxygen gas should be developed for a successful turbine. The development of this gas generator would make up tests P5-P12. Goddard would refer to this gas generator as "an internal combustion-boiler for liquid oxygen", "the object of which was to convert liquid oxygen into warm gaseous oxygen, in a device of small size and light weight, by the combustion of gasoline within this liquid oxygen". This warm gas is what would drive the turbines. From there, flight and static tests using liquid-propellant rockets with these high-speed centrifugal turbine-driven pumps were conducted for tests P13-P36. These rockets averaged nearly 22 feet in length and were 18 inches in diameter. Empty, they weighed between 190 to 240 pounds. The liquid-oxygen load averaged about 140 pounds and the gasoline 112 pounds, making these "quarter-ton" loaded rockets.

Ultimately, the P-Series would expose the unsustainability of Goddard’s objectives working with large and more complex turbine rockets. Combined with his longtime aversion towards scientific collaboration, and a counterintuitive approach to testing that often emphasized changing several variables at a time, the P-Series saw him biting off more than he could chew. The P-Series of tests can be seen in Reel 9 and Reel 10 of The Goddard Rocket Film Reels.

'The Goddard Rocket Researches: A Photographic Record' is an annotated photo album covering Robert H. Goddard's work and experimentation with rocketry. It was assembled and curated by Esther Goddard sometime after her husband's passing in 1945. Additionally, almost all of the photographs were taken by Esther herself.

Photographs were scanned at 400dpi.

Date Taken

8-9-1940

Type

image

Genre

photograph

Format

jpg

Keywords

Robert Goddard, rocketry, rockets, Roswell, New Mexico, liquid-fuel rockets, nitrogen, pump-fed rockets, turbines, turbopumps, oxygen pump, gasoline pump

Recommended Citation

Goddard, Esther C., "[280] Rocket leaving tower, using pumps for propellants, August 9 1940" (1940). The Goddard Rocket Researches: A Photographic Record [Individual Photographs]. 283.
https://commons.clarku.edu/goddardphotographs/283

Rights

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