Last semester we took a virtual trip to Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. This week we return to NASA, but we’re visiting the oldest (and largest) of the research centers: Goddard Flight Center. This lesson reminds us of NASA’s origin and purpose, introduces us to the brilliance of Goddard’s namesake, Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard, and provides an overview of Goddard Flight Center to help prepare for next week’s visit. Sneak preview: our guest will tell us specifically about the women of Goddard.

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.

—Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard

By 1926, Goddard had constructed and successfully tested the first rocket using liquid fuel. Indeed, the flight of Goddard’s rocket on March 16, 1926, at Auburn, Massachusetts, was as significant to history as that of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.

Primitive in their day as the achievement of the Wrights, Goddard’s rockets made little impression on government officials. Only through modest subsidies from the Smithsonian Institution and the Daniel Guggenheim Foundation, as well as the leaves of absence granted him by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute of Clark University, was Goddard able to sustain his lifetime of devoted research and testing.

At his own expense, he began to make systematic studies about propulsion provided by various types of gunpowder. His classic document was a study he wrote in 1916 requesting funds from the Smithsonian Institution so that he could continue his research. This was later published along with his subsequent research and Navy work in a Smithsonian Miscellaneous Publication No. 2540 (January 1920). It was entitled “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes.” In this treatise, Goddard detailed his search for methods of raising weather-recording instruments higher than sounding balloons. In this search, he developed the mathematical theories of rocket propulsion.

Toward the end of his 1920 report, Goddard outlined the possibility of a rocket reaching the moon and exploding a load of flash powder there to mark its arrival. The bulk of his scientific report to the Smithsonian was a dry explanation of how he used the $5,000 grant in his research. The press picked up Goddard’s scientific proposal about a rocket flight to the moon, however, and created a journalistic controversy concerning the feasibility of such a thing. The resulting ridicule created in Goddard firm convictions about the nature of the press corps, which he held for the rest of his life.

Goddard was the first scientist who not only realized the potentialities of missiles and space flight but also contributed directly in bringing them to practical realization. Goddard had a rare talent in both creative science and practical engineering. The dedicated labors of this modest man went largely unrecognized in the United States until the dawn of the Space Age. High honors and wide acclaim, belated but richly deserved, now come to the name of Robert H. Goddard.

Robert Goddard's contributions to missilery and space flight would make a lengthy list. Below are some highlights.

• Explored the practicality of using rocket propulsion to reach high altitudes, even the moon (1912)

• Proved that a rocket will work in a vacuum, that it needs no air to push against

• Developed and fired a liquid fuel rocket (March 16, 1926, Auburn, Mass.)

• Shot a scientific payload in a rocket flight (1929, Auburn, Mass.)

• Used vanes in the rocket motor blast for guidance (1932, New Mexico)

• Developed gyro control apparatus for rocket flight (1932, New Mexico)

• Received U.S. patent for of multi-stage rocket (1914)

• Developed pumps suitable for rocket fuels

• Launched a rocket with a motor pivoted on gimbals under the influence of a gyro mechanism (1937)

With this background in mind, here’s a helpful overview of NASA (thanks to Emeritus instructor Tara Gilboy).

NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The 183-pound, basketball-sized satellite orbited the earth in 98 minutes. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America. The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U.S.-Soviet space race.

Check out this five-minute video from NASA about the origins of NASA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV6QeZFaVSQ

And check out this four-minute video to learn more about the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union: https://youtu.be/xvaEvCNZymo

NASA has continued to make great advances in space exploration since the first moonwalk, including playing a major part in the construction of the International Space Station. The agency has also suffered tragic setbacks, however, such as the disasters that killed the crews of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986 and the Columbia space shuttle in 2003.

Back to Dr. Goddard and how his work influenced NASA…

Goddard Space Flight Center is NASA’s first and oldest space center. It is one of ten major NASA field centers, and it’s the largest combined organization of engineers and scientists in the United States.

When Goddard first opened its doors in 1959, it was called the Beltsville Space Center. It was later named after Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the pioneer of modern rocket propulsion in the U.S.

Goddard has been instrumental in NASA’s early manned flight programs. Starting with Project Mercury, scientists and engineers conducted research and developed technology to send humans into space. Goddard scientists helped develop computer support and radar tracking of flights through the Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STDN). Engineers also worked to improve modular spacecraft design.

Goddard has developed more instruments of planetary exploration than any other organization!

Today GSFC operates two spaceflight tracking and data acquisition networks. It also develops and maintains space and Earth science data information systems, and it develops satellite systems for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

GSFC manages operations for many other NASA programs and missions. These include the Hubble Space Telescope, the Explorer program, the Discovery Program, Solar Dynamics Observatory, OSIRIS-Rex, and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.

Goddard typically manages unmanned earth observation missions, while the Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages unmanned planetary missions.

Goddard operates three facilities that aren’t located on the Greenbelt location:

• Wallops Flight Facility (manages NASA’s sounding rocket program)

• Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is located at Columbia University in New York

• The Independent Verification and Validation Facility (IV&V), which works on improving safety, reliability, and software use in NASA missions.

Learn more about some fascinating NASA projects.

A few thoughts to leave you with (from Did You Know?):

More than 10,000 people work at Goddard

o   3,000 civil servants

o   6,000 on-site contractors

o   1,000 others

• The budget is more than $5 billion

• NASA ranks #1 of best places to work in the federal government, and Goddard is #18

• The four focus areas of Goddard research are:  Earth Science, Astrophysics, Heliophysics (study of the sun), planetary science.

• Goddard is located less than 7 miles from Washington, D.C.

• Goddard has launched close to 300 missions over the past 50 years

• Goddard was home office to John Mather, Nobel Prize Winner for Physics

About Goddard. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/index.html

Goddard. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Goddard Flight Center. (2022). Retrieved from https://nasa.fandom.com/wiki/Goddard_Space_Flight_Center