<p>An original 1941 two-stage liquid fueled rocket designed by Robert H. Goddard.  Part of the external casing of this 22 foot high rocket has been removed to reveal the internal features.  On display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
</p><p>Robert Goddard was born in 1882.  He was an American physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which he launched on March 16, 1926. Goddard launched 34 rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 1.5 miles and speeds as fast as 550 mph.
</p><p>Goddard's work made spaceflight possible. Two of Goddard's 214 patents (for a multi-stage rocket design and for a liquid-fueled rocket) are milestones of spaceflight.  Goddard also was the first person to control a rocket on all three axes, use a gyroscope to steer a rocket, and use exhaust vanes to control a rocket.  His 1919 paper, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes", is one of the classic texts of 20th-century rocketry. 
</p><p>Goddard's work was revolutionary, but he was ridiculed in the press for his theories.  (The Nazis took him seriously.  They used his work to invent the V-2.)  However, the Smithsonian Institution and private foundations funded his early research.
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Robert Goddard died on August 10, 1945.  NASA's Goddard Space Flight is named for him.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/23165290@N00">Tim Evanson</a> from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/7275640430/">Goddard liquid fuel rocket 1941 - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - 2012-05-15</a>