March 14, 2016 - Rocketing into History
Rocketing Into History Ninety years ago this week, the first liquid-fueled rocket, designed and built by physicist Dr. Robert H. Goddard, lifted off from a field in Auburn, Massachusetts. That first rocket only made it to a height of 12.5 m (41 ft), but nine years later Goddard successfully launched a liquid-fueled rocket to 1,463 m (4,800 ft). Just three decades after that, Saturn V rockets were sending Apollo astronauts to the Moon using more advanced liquid-fuel technology. Here, the Apollo 15 Saturn V lifts off on July 26, 1971, carrying astronauts Dave Scott, Al Worden, and Jim Irwin on the fourth successful lunar landing. A Saturn V had nearly a million times the thrust of Goddard’s first humble field test, but without Goddard’s vision and inventiveness, humans may never have risen to such heights.
Image credit: NASA
Weekly Calendar
March 14-20, 2016
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 14
Aldebaran 0.3° south of Moon
1835: Giovanni Schiaparelli born
1879: Albert Einstein born
1934: Gene Cernan born
1986: Giotto flies by Halley’s Comet
1995: Soyuz TM-21 launched, first Russian mission with American on board
2016: ExoMars launched
Tuesday 15
First Qtr Moon 1:03 PM ET
1713: Nicolas de Lacaille born
1932: Alan Bean born
1975: Helios 1 launched
2009: STS-119 Discovery launched
Wednesday 16
1750: Caroline Herschel born
1926: Robert Goddard launches first liquid fuel rocket
1966: Gemini VIII launched
1975: Mariner 10’s 3rd Mercury flyby
Thursday 17
St. Patrick’s Day
1930: Jim Irwin born
1958: Vanguard 1 launched, first solar-powered satellite
1972: NASA issues request for proposals for Space Shuttle
2011: MESSENGER becomes first spacecraft to orbit Mercury
Friday 18
1965: Voskhod 2 launched, Alexei Leonov takes world’s first spacewalk
1980: Soviet rocket explosion kills 50 workers at Plesetsk launch pad
2016: Soyuz TMA-20M launched carrying ISS Expedition 47/48 crew
Saturday 19
1970: First powered flight of X-24A lifting body
Sunday 20
Palm Sunday
Equinox 12:30 AM ET
Venus 0.5° south of Neptune