Working in isolation in the decades before World War II, Robert Goddard pioneered the technical developments that made rocket propulsion feasible—but was ridiculed in the press for his “loony” ideas about rocketing though space. Only the Germans took him seriously, and they used his work to develop the V2 rocket, the world’s first stratospheric ballistic missile, which rained destruction on London and other European cities during World War II. The original “rocket scientist,” Goddard was the first man to propel a vehicle faster than the speed of sound.

His V2 rocket finally woke up the U.S. government, and was promptly transformed into a succession of rockets that carried men to the moon and beyond. Yet the government offered Goddard no credit. Only through the efforts of his determined wife was his posthumous vindication and recognition realized. After his death, she gained 214 patents for him, an award of $1 million for prior infringement and continued use of his ideas, and the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1961. Even the New York Times, which in 1920 had ridiculed him for his crazy ideas about rocketing through space, offered a posthumous apology in 1969 as Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar dust.

ROCKET MAN includes some of the most colorful figures of the time such as Charles Lindbergh and Harry Guggenheim. Lindbergh’s role in the creation of Goddard’s posthumous legend—a project he shared with the rocketeer’s widow and philanthropist Guggenheim—adds another, richer aspect to the story. ROCKET MAN also uncovers a question that no one has been able to answer up until now—where Lindbergh kept disappearing to in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many other interesting and famous characters, such as Jimmy Doolittle and Goddard’s estimable wife and widow, Esther, also swirl through the rocketeer’s adventures.

“Robert H. Goddard was among the elite group of scientists in the United States whose pioneering work in rocket propulsion provided the base from which today's space exploration was created. Men such as Goddard are often overlooked when one considers the tremendous contribution he made to the state of the art. Goddard’s stick-to-itiveness nature is evident in the biography by David Clary and is an important reminder of what it takes to persevere and to make a significant contribution to science.”

 

“ROCKET MAN is a long overdue tribute to one of the greatest engineers of the Twentieth Century—whose work helped change the future of this and many other worlds.”

 

David Clary has worked as a consultant to the Departments of Defense, Interior, and Agriculture. He teaches history at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell and English at the New Mexico Military Institute. He is the author of over a hundred publications on U.S. military and environmental history, among other subjects. He lives in Roswell, New Mexico.

 

Rocket Man by David A. Clary
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