Transport & space · 1926

Liquid-fuel rocket

Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket from a Massachusetts farm.

On 16 March 1926 Robert Goddard's gasoline and liquid oxygen rocket flew for 2.5 seconds and reached 12.5 m. Liquid propellants offered far higher performance than solid gunpowder and could be throttled. Every orbital launch vehicle descends from this design.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Rocket equation 1903
Gunpowder rocket 1232

What it led to 6

V-2 rocket 1944
Bell X-1 breaks sound barrier 1947
Geostationary satellite (Syncom) 1964
Hubble Space Telescope 1990
Falcon 1 reaches orbit 2008
Vikram-1 reaches orbit 2026

Watch

The Story of Robert Goddard, Father of Modern RocketryNASA Goddard · YouTube

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Selected milestones in human travel speed Latest: 39.9k km/h (1969) Source: Wikipedia: Horse gait (gallop 40-48 km/h); Wikipedia: List of speed records in rail transport

Objects launched into space Latest: 4.51k per year (2025) Source: Our World in Data