Robert H. Goddard was an American scientist and physics professor. As a child he had many problems with illnesses. On March 16, 1926, he became the first person in the world to build and launch a liquid-fueled rocket. From 1930 to 1935 Goddard launched rockets that reached speeds of up to 885 km/h (550 mph). Although his field work was groundbreaking, he was sometimes ridiculed for his theories of spaceflight. As a child, Goddard was a thin, frail boy who was almost always in fragile health with colds, stomach problems and bronchitis. He was two years behind. his classmates. While ill Goddard became a voracious reader, with regular visits to the local public library to borrow books on the physical sciences. As his health improved, he continued his education at South High School in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1901. As a sophomore at South High he excelled in his courses, and his peers twice elected him class president. At his graduation ceremony in 1904, he gave his class speech as valedictorian, and in his speech, which he titled "Taking Things for Granted," Goddard included a phrase that would become emblematic of his life, from Wikipedia: "It has often been demonstrated it is true that yesterday's dream is today's hope and tomorrow's reality.' Goddard enrolled at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in 1904 and quickly impressed A. Wilmer Duff, the head of the physics department Professor Duff he took over as a lab assistant while tutoring him. At Worcester, Goddard joined SAEF (Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity) and began a long relationship with high school classmate Miriam Olmstead, an honor student who had graduated with Goddard as salutatorian, the second highest graduate of all graduates. .middle of the article......Goddard's work dealt with the theoretical and experimental relationships between propellant, rocket mass, thrust, and velocity, a final section titled " Calculating the Minimum Mass Required to Lift One Pound to an "Infinite" Altitude ' discussed the possibility of using rockets, not only to reach the highest part of our atmosphere, but also to escape Earth's gravitation altogether. Goddard seriously discussed the question of launching a rocket at the Moon and igniting a mass of flash dust on its surface, so as to be visible through a telescope, until he came up with an estimate of the amount of flash dust needed. Goddard's conclusion was that a rocket with an initial mass of 3.21 tons could produce a flash "barely visible" from Earth. And after forty years, Goddard's concept was proven when the Soviet space probe Luna 2 landed on the Moon in September. 14, 1959.