Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: StarDate
Episode: The First Step
Description: Snow blanketed the launch pad, and the rocketeers sipped hot malted milk to ward off the chill. But the launch they conducted a century ago today turned the idea of space travel from fantasy to possibility – and provided the first small step toward the Moon.
The rocket was designed by Robert Goddard, a physics professor at Clark University in Massachusetts. Goddard was brilliant but secretive. He refused to collaborate with other scientists, and seldom even talked about his research. Instead, he
spent his time building, testing, and flying rockets.
At the time he started, all ro...