Twenty-five years have passed since the appearance of this splendid biography of our American rocket pioneer. So much has happened in the technology he pursued: space exploration. Men have spent the better part of a year in earth orbit and traversed the surface of the moon. Weather and communications satellites are now vital elements of the global economy. Daily they touch the lives of each of us.

Historians recognize three men of science as pioneers of rocket theory: K. E. Tsiolkovsky (U.S.S.R.;1857-1935), Robert H. Goddard (U.S.A.; 1882-1945), and Hermann Oberth (Germany; 1894). All three inspired the youth of their countries to dream of flight into space, and to work towards its accomplishment. However, Robert Goddard was the only pioneer who also invented, built, and launched rockets.

On the 16th of March, 1926, Goddard launched the world’s first liquid propellant rocket. It burned liquid oxygen and gasoline, and weighed nine pounds. The rocket reached an altitude of 41 feet and landed 184 feet away. Nevertheless, this may be considered a bench mark in flight history; perhaps as great as that of Orville Wright’s first flight achieved a distance of just 120 feet. Collecting the pieces of his rocket, Goddard made a few modifications and launched it again in eight days.

Forty-three years later the multi-engine, three-stage Saturn 5 rocket boosted three astronauts to the moon. The basic principles involved — the use of metered liquid bi-propellants forced into a combustion chamber to burn and exit at supersonic speed through a tapered exhaust nozzle, and the concept of multiple, or staged, rockets — were detailed in two U.S. patents issued to Goddard in July 1914. In 1926 these principles were demonstrated in actual flight.

During his lifetime Robert Goddard designed, built (with a few technician assistants), and launched thirty-five rockets of increasing sophistication. He improved his sounding rockets’ designs, developing turbopump systems; gyrostabilization; aerodynamic and jet-deflector flight controls; automatic sequencing launch systems; flight trajectory tracking and recording devices; gimbal-mount clustered rocket motors; parachute recovery – and many other techniques later to be developed further by others. But he did it first!

There is no greater proof of Goddard’s originality than his

U.S. patents. In addition to the two issued in July 1914, fifty-six more would be issued to him in his lifetime. Thirty-five patents pending were issued after his death in 1945. An additional 131 (!) based upon his notes, sketches, and photographs, were applied for by his widow, Esther C. Goddard. In 1960 the U.S. Government paid the sum of $1,000,000 to acquire the rights to use these 214 patents.

Author Milton Lehman spent seven years in the research and writing of his biography. It was a monumental task and he succeeded admirably. Lehman had been a combat correspondent during World War II and received the Army’s Legion of Merit for his distinguished reporting on the Anzio beachhead in Italy. He was editor of The Stars and Stripes (Mediterranean). Married to Mildred B. Kharfen, he enjoyed an active family life with their three children in Bethesda, MD. His death in 1966 at age 48 was untimely.