In the early 1930s, Dr. Robert H. Goddard towed his rocket to the launching tower behind a Model A Ford truck, 15 miles northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. Dr. Goddard is recognized as the “Father of American Rocketry” and as one of the pioneers in the theoretical exploration of space. Robert Hutchings Goddard was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Oct. 15, 1882. He was a theoretical scientist, as well as a practical engineer. His dream was the conquest of the upper atmosphere and ultimately space through the use of rocket propulsion. Dr. Goddard, who died in 1945, was probably as responsible for the dawning of the Space Age as the Wright Brothers were for the beginning of the Air Age. Yet his work attracted little serious attention during his lifetime. When the United States began to prepare for the conquest of space in the 1950s, American rocket scientists began to recognize the debt owed to the New England professor. They discovered that it was virtually impossible to construct a rocket or launch a satellite without acknowledging the work of Dr. Goddard. This great legacy was covered by more than 200 patents, many of which were issued after his death.Image Credit: NASA