Late Precursors 2

America’s Prodigy Unappreciated

...........The initial interests of the United States government in the infantine science of liquid fuel rocketry came during WWI, answered by another visionary yet reclusive scientist. But it would not be until years later that these devices were to be considered as formidable and potentially powerful allies to the interests of America. If Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the father of cosmonautics, then the American Robert Hutchings Goddard fathered astronautics. Goddard, a solitary and scholarly man, was likewise inspired by the flights of fancy of science fiction authors, namely "The War of the Worlds," a classic story of a Martian invasion by H.G. Wells. His products however, were far different than those of Tsiolkovsky. Goddard was both a talented physicist and a capable engineer. Without knowledge of the Russians theoretical works, Goddard produced similarly noteworthy ideas, also based on liquid fuel rockets. The primary difference between these two men was that while the former sketched and wrote manuscripts, the latter constructed and launched actual rockets.(Walter, 23)

Goddards sketches evidence the level of sophistication he reached in his early inquiries into rocket science. This design was patented, as were many others later in his life.

Here Robert H. Goddard illustrated one of his more ambitious goals. Despite the true genius of the mans work, he was ridiculed for his grander aspirations. In an age when airplanes were still in their infancy, many people were not ready for the prospect of space travel. Indeed, the science-fiction-like overtones of Goddards ideas alienated him from the mainstream scientific community. But his geninely insightful research and more pragmatic goals earned him the recognition of the Smitsonian Institute, the Guggenheim family and the U.S. Army, all of whom contributed monetarily to his objectives..

...........In July 1914 Goddard patented his first "Rocket Apparatus," after which he continued to build and launch, with limited success, rockets of successively larger size and scope. Goddard applied for a research grant from the Smithsonian Institute in response to his dwindling personal funds in 1916, and to his amazement, received a $5000 grant for atmospheric rocket research. A year later, with the beginning of America’s involvement in WWI, the prolific Goddard was contracted by the U.S. Army Signal Corps to develop a rocket for military purposes. He developed one effective recoilless missile launcher during the war, but an armistice was reached shortly thereafter, and Goddards’ contract was cancelled. Despite the contributions of the Smithsonian and the Army, Goddard had made little progress in engineering these complex machines. In 1920, in compliance with the wishes of his mentor, Dr. Arthur G. Webster, Goddard finally went public with the rocket work that he had done in secrecy for years. He published a paper called "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" in 1919, reluctantly hoping to gain recognition or possibly greater funding. This paper would prove to afford him greater distinction than he had expected, but it was all the wrong kind of distinction.(Walter, 28)

...........A discreet mention of a moon landing by virtue of rocket propulsion in Goddards’ paper earned him the title of "Moon Rocket Man," with the press; an utter humiliation for him that would influence him to keep most of his remarkable later work out of the view of the public. Despite the intensive and intuitive factual nature of his dissertation, Goddard was ridiculed for his more outlandish suggestions.(Emme, 88) Although this paper and some later press attention was something of an annoyance to Goddard, it was of huge significance to the development in rocketry in general. Not only did it earn him the recognition and financing of the Guggenheim family, allowing him to continue his work until his death in 1945, but it also inspired several key figures in the development of rocketry technologies. While Goddard toiled ceaselessly at his experiments, launching the first successful liquid fuel rocket in 1926, and several others subsequently, his contemporaries picked up his pioneering work elsewhere.(Emme, 90) He was the first true icon of the American space age, but the genius of his work was not fully acknowledged by most until after his passing in 1945.

Robert H. Goddard proudly stands beside his creation. This, the worlds first working liquid fuel rocket, was launched in 1926.

Hermann Oberth is seen here tinkering with his gadgets in his early years. His contributions would help inaugurate the German Rocket Society and motivate the German military interest in rocketry during WWII.

German Defeat for American Gain

...........After the exposure of another ambitious rocketman, Hermann Oberth, to the writings of Goddard, a new age was to be born in the history of space technology. Oberth was a Rumanian scientist who had already been drafting similar ideas as Goddard for several years when he read the Americans’ publication. It was Oberth who would prove to advance the more eccentric ideas of space flight via rocket ship that the reclusive Goddard refused to expose. Oberths legacy is a long and involved one, leading to the rise of the German Rocket Society, better known as the VfR, as well as a general enthusiasm throughout Europe in the 1930’s about the potential of rocketry.(Emme, 91) After Oberth published a visionary volume called Die Rackete zu den Planetenraumun (By Rocket to Planetary Space), the German public was infatuated with the ideas he advanced. In a country depressed by post-WWI reparations Oberth's inspirational book came at a perfect time. According to author William Walter "Germans longed for a new start, and rockets, it turned out, became a symbol for a hopeful future" (36).

........... The VfR would prove to advance the sophistication of rockets to incredible levels and gain a large and powerful following. By 1944, after the Nazis had recruited most of the members of this growing scientific society, they would use their ten-year lead in the development of rockets to bombard England with the fearsome V-2 ballistic missile. By this time, the world had grown increasingly aware of the prospect of space flight with rockets, not to mention their capability as an effective weapon. After Hitler’s offensive collapsed, Americans captured the German rocket scientists who had engineered the awe-inspiring V-2, including its inventor Werner von Braun.(Walter, 47) Werner von Braun and his cohorts in Peenemunde, the main German rocket assembly base, had made huge advances in the comprehensive field of ballistic rocketry throughout WWII in hopes of creating a workable spacecraft. When Hitler’s Reich collapsed, all but one of the Peenemunde scientists opted to surrender to the United States.(Walter, 64) This may have been the most significant event in the lead up to the space race. Had Von Braun and his fellows instead chosen to work for the Soviets, the impeded Americans may never have been able to catch up to the USSR’s well-developed space program.

German technicians prepare a high-tech V-2 rocket for launch. Germany assailled Britain with 1200 of these fearsome bombs during the war, causing massive devastation, but with a suprisingly low death toll of about 2500 people (Kerrod,10).

Werner Von Braun (sitting on table) poses alongside his cohorts from the German rocket assembly headquarters in Peenemunde. All of these scientists were instrumental in the U.S. space programs eventual triumphs, but Von Braun's resourceful inventions were particularly vital. This photograph of the group, all of whom were working for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) was taken in 1956. The American officer on the left is Major General Holger Toftoy, one of the men involved in "operation paperclip," the plan to capture these scientists and their technology in 1945.

........... Since the venerable Tsiolkovsky, the USSR had been consistently ahead of the United States in practical rocketry. The Soviet Union had its own equivalent to Robert Goddard in the engineer Sergei Korolev. Korolev had been running the Russian research center, the Group for the Study of Rocket Propulsion Systems (GIRD), since 1932 and had been busily designing jet planes, surface-to-air missiles, and other craft ever since. An outstanding scientist, Korolev designed the worlds first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) shortly after the war and was sending dogs up to the edge of space by 1952 (Walter, 75). With the already impressive capabilities of the Russians, those German rocketeers could have doubtless put them far ahead of the United States if they had chosen to side with them. But as fate would have it the Americans got to them first, initiating an illustrative first step in the race for space. The next event in this epic of competition was perhaps the most frightening and catalyzing incident in the history of human existence: the first employment of an atomic bomb.