{"id":43353,"date":"2026-03-17T18:55:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/100-years-later-where-is-robert-goddards-first-liquid-fueled-rocket\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:55:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:55:57","slug":"100-years-later-where-is-robert-goddards-first-liquid-fueled-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/100-years-later-where-is-robert-goddards-first-liquid-fueled-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"100 years later, where is Robert Goddard\u2019s first liquid-fueled rocket?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It flew for only two seconds, but its impact is still felt a century later.<\/p>\n

Robert Goddard\u2019s first liquid-fueled rocket, which lifted off from a snowy field on March 16, 1926, has been written about extensively. Earlier solid-fueled rockets existed, but liquid-fueled rockets promised the sustainability and control needed to send spacecraft and humans into Earth orbit and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rocket\u2019s reach was short, but it marked the moment that humanity entered a new era,\u201d said Kevin Schindler, author of \u201cRobert Goddard\u2019s Massachusetts,\u201d speaking at the site of that first launch as part of a centennial commemoration held Saturday in Auburn (March 14). \u201cIt proved that liquid fuel could lift a craft skyward\u2014the essential breakthrough that would one day carry humans to the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos from that day exist through the efforts of Goddard\u2019s wife, as does a monument stand from where the rocket, nicknamed \u201cNell,\u201d left the ground (today, located on a golf course). Over the decades, replicas of Nell have been built, even ones capable of flight. But a century later, a question about the rocket remains.<\/p>\n

Where is it now?<\/p>\n

First (and last?) to see<\/h2>\n

\u201cGoddard didn\u2019t seek the spotlight. He sought the truth. He was a scientist. Apart from his small team, very few people could say that they were truly there who felt the steady roar and saw the flash of fire against the New England snow. One of those people was my father,\u201d said Thomas Hastings, addressing a small crowd who gathered in Auburn.<\/p>\n

Hasting\u2019s father, Gerald, who was 10 years old on that day in 1926, was sledding with some friends when he saw \u201cfour people in heavy coats got out of [their] vehicle and remove some rather large objects.\u201d As he later learned, those four were Goddard, Goddard\u2019s wife Esther, Goddard\u2019s crew chief Henry Sachs, and Clark University assistant physics professor Percy Roope.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Henry Sachs, Robert Goddard\u2019s assistant, ignites the first liquid fueled rocket on March 16, 1926.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Esther Goddard\/Clark University<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cDad [later] commented that the scene felt very strange,\u201d said Hastings. \u201cHe and his friends continued looking on with great interest as the nameless visitors took whatever it was they had removed from the vehicle and assembled the pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine how his imagination soared suddenly. They saw fire and smoke and heard loud noise as some object shot up into the air,\u201d Hastings said, recounting what his father told him. \u201cDad and his friends shook their heads at each other, completely baffled by what they had just witnessed, and they continued sledding like you would expect them to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goddard wrote in his notebook that the rocket \u201crose 41 feet & went 184 feet, in 2.5 secs.\u201d The next day, he added, \u201cEven though the release was pulled, the rocket did not rise at first, but the flame came out, and there was a steady roar. After a number of seconds it rose, slowly until it cleared the frame, and then at express train speed, curving over to the left, and striking the ice and snow, still going at a rapid rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked almost magical as it rose, without any appreciably greater noise or flame, as if it said, \u2018I\u2019ve been here long enough; I think I\u2019ll be going somewhere else, if you don\u2019t mind,\u2019\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Nell\u2019s \u201csalvation\u201d<\/h2>\n

Nell, which gained its name from the title character of the then-contemporary play \u201cSalvation Nell,\u201d found its salvation in pieces.<\/p>\n

Hastings, as recounted by his son, recalled watching as the \u201cstrangers in dark coats ran through the snow, gathered up what it was they had brought and set on fire, and they put the pieces back into their vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Esther took a photograph of her husband standing with the recovered parts. She also posed for a similar photo, together with Sachs and Roope. In his notebook, Goddard wrote that they brought the rocket\u2019s remains back to his laboratory.<\/p>\n

By all accounts, Goddard did not try to reassemble Nell, nor did he treat the pieces as historic artifacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t preserve it as a sacred object,\u201d wrote Michael Neufeld, who retired as a senior curator for the space history division of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, in an email. \u201cHe didn\u2019t have a lot of money at that point and reused everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

A nozzle and a flood<\/h2>\n

In 1950, five years after Goddard\u2019s death, the Guggenheim Foundation for the Promotion of Aeronautics donated to the Smithsonian the scientist\u2019s immediate successor to Nell. Goddard attempted to launch that rocket on May 4 and 5, 1926.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt survives because its thrust was too weak to launch itself,\u201d wrote Neufeld. \u201cFor some reason he preserved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Air and Space Museum\u2019s collection catalog describes the Goddard May 1926 rocket as \u201clikely includ[ing] the nozzle\u201d recovered from Nell.<\/p>\n

\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The nozzle on Robert Goddard\u2019s May 1926 rocket, which did not fly and was donated to the National Air and Space Museum, \u201clikely\u201d was at least part of the first liquid fueled rocket launch on March 16 of that same year.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cI gather the nozzle assertion is based on his notes. I haven\u2019t seen them myself,\u201d said Neufeld. \u201cMore may be on the May 1926 rocket, which we can\u2019t prove.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goddard\u2019s notebook is held at the Robert H. Goddard Library at Clark University today. In his March 16, 1926, entry, Goddard recorded that \u201cthe lower half of the nozzle burned off.\u201d Photos taken prior to Nell\u2019s launch show a longer nozzle than what is installed on the May rocket, perhaps supporting its suggested reuse.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Frank Winter, a retired curator of rocketry at the National Air and Space Museum, recently wrote an article for \u201cQuest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly,\u201d in which he cited an inventory of the Robert H. Goddard Collection at the Roswell Museum and Arts Center in New Mexico, including \u201cthe protective conical cap that was mounted on top of the propellant tanks, nozzle fragments and the combustion chamber\u201d from Nell.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Roswell Museum has been closed since October 2024, ever since it was devastated by a flood. Reached for this article, Caroline Brooks, the Roswell Museum\u2019s executive director, confirmed they have four pieces claimed to be part of the March 1926 flight.<\/p>\n

As referenced by both Winter and Brooks, W.S. Crane researched and published a catalog for the museum\u2019s Goddard holdings in 1994. The chamber is attributed to coming from Clark University and the nozzle fragments are described as a gift from Esther Goddard. The source of the nose cone is unknown.<\/p>\n

\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Fragments attributed to flying as part of the world\u2019s first liquid fuel rocket in the Robert Goddard collection at the Roswell Museum and Arts Center in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n W.S. Crane\/Roswell Museum<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The museum also has the rod, rollers, and wire that were used to ignite Nell. \u201cPulling the wire opened a hole in the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank, where the oxygen dripped onto a heated surface,\u201d Crane wrote, adding that the assembly was also a gift from Mrs. Goddard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a few years out from a full recovery,\u201d wrote Brooks in an email. \u201cThe Goddard collection will return in a contemporary and updated presentation (compared to the original exhibit, which dated back to 1959) when the museum reopens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cente-Nell-ial<\/h2>\n

Today, the remains from the world\u2019s first liquid-fueled rocket to fly might be less consequential than the legacy they helped create. Goddard\u2019s design for Nell\u2014especially mounting the exhaust nozzle above its propellant tank\u2014was less a model for the engines that followed than a symbol of what is possible.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from its historic significance, this rocket became a minor source of embarrassment for Dr. Goddard, since the illogical position of the combustion chamber at the top is evidence that he had failed to consider some very basic physics in his design,\u201d wrote Crane. \u201cThis is a great example of the role of common sense and intuition in pioneering engineering, and one of the very few times that Dr. Goddard\u2019s failed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, replicas, more than the remains, help the public understand Nell\u2019s role in history. Since its opening in 1976, the National Air and Space Museum has displayed a full-scale, NASA-donated recreation of Goddard\u2019s first rocket (which is now at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia).<\/p>\n

In December 2003, for the national celebration of the centennial of flight, NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center worked with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to reconstruct \u201chistorically accurate, functional replicas\u201d of Nell. The project was carried out to \u201cclearly understand, recreate, and document the mechanisms and workings of the 1926 rocket\u201d and created a \u201cresource for researchers studying the evolution of liquid rocketry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"a<\/p>\n

A full-scale replica of Robert Goddard\u2019s first liquid fueled rocket on display at the site where the original launched on March 16, 1926. The static model was on exhibit as part of the centennial celebration in Auburn, Massachusetts, on Saturday, March 14, 2026.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Auburn Fire Rescue Department<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

On Monday, a different full-size replica premieres on display at The Museum of Worcester, just 10 minutes from where the real Nell launched. On exhibit through August, the rocket is a model, but its support frame was used in a 1929 launch test, on loan from Clark University.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoddard\u2019s legacy is not just technological. It\u2019s aspirational,\u201d said Schindler. \u201cIt tells us that greatness can emerge from quiet places, that bold ideas can take root in small towns, and that the next breakthrough may come from someone standing right here looking up at the sky with wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we honor the centennial, we\u2019re invited to step into the story ourselves. The next century of exploration will be shaped by those who choose to dream boldly, learn deeply, and support the next generation of explorers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It flew for only two seconds, but its impact is still felt a century later. Robert Goddard\u2019s first liquid-fueled rocket, which lifted off from a snowy field on March 16, 1926, has been written about extensively. Earlier solid-fueled rockets existed, but liquid-fueled rockets promised the sustainability and control needed to send spacecraft and humans into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}