Aiming at the Stars

"It looked almost magical as it rose, without any appreciably greater noise or flame, as if it said, I've been here long enough; I think I'll be going somewhere else, if you don't mind.' " Thus read the March 17, 1926 entry from the diary of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, an obscure physics professor and engineer. The day before, Goddard had launched the first liquid-fueled rocket from a field on his Aunt Effie's farm near Auburn, Mass. The 2 1/2 sec. flight carried the rocket to a height of only 41 ft. and a speed of 60 m.p.h. But it convinced Goddard that the science of rocketry would one day land a man on the moon.

Goddard's grandiose predictions remained widely doubted until his death in 1945. Yet in the 1960s the U.S. spent about $34.5 billion on space programs, culminating in the 1969 Apollo moon landing. In the 1970s the country will spend almost the same amount ($34.1 billion), overwhelming proof that Goddard's dream still has considerable thrust. Two Viking probes are en route to Mars, a Venus probe is scheduled for 1978, and a reusable space shuttle will go aloft the following year.

Last week the 50th anniversary of Goddard's experiment was re-enacted in front of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Those who agree with the tiresome cliche that there is so much to accomplish on earth, hence why bother to go into space, were not moved by the occasion. Others took it as a metaphor for all kinds of human progress, which has received an undeservedly bad name. As Goddard wrote to H.G. Wells in 1932, " 'Aiming at the stars,' both literally and figuratively, is a problem to occupy generations, so that no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning."

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