It's been a century since a two-second rocket flight in Massachusetts kicked off the liquid-rocket-fuel revolution. Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), who directed the flight, is widely considered to be one of the founders of modern rocketry, along with Hermann Oberth in Germany and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in Russia. Goddard most notably designed, built and tested the first flown liquid-fuel rocket—with launch 100 years ago on March 16, 1926.
And as we'll explore in more detail later, much of Goddard's rocket work was supported and promoted (including for four decades, posthumously) by his wife, Esther — who kept the records, put out literal launch fires, and diligently kept after the patent office for dozens of filings.
