Robert Goddard, known as the “Father of Modern Rocketry,” was born in Worcester, and graduated from South High School and Worcester Polytechnic Institute before earning his doctorate at Clark. His rocket launch marked the dawn of the space age
WORCESTER – Even though it’s still two years away, the countdown has begun for a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket launch by Robert Goddard.
Goddard launched his rocket 41 feet into the air on the site of what was his Aunt Effie’s dairy farm and is now Pakachoag Golf Course in Auburn on March 16, 1926.
On March 16, 98 years later to the day, the City of Worcester, the Town of Auburn and Charles Slatkin’s “The Wonder Mission” held a “First Launch Centennial” press conference at Goddard’s former home at 1 Tallawanda Drive, only half a mile from Goddard Memorial Drive leading to Worcester Airport.
Goddard, known as the “Father of Modern Rocketry,” was born in Worcester, and graduated from South High School and Worcester Polytechnic Institute before earning his doctorate at Clark University where he later taught physics and performed rocket experiments. His rocket launch marked the dawn of the space age.
Slatkin, founder of The Wonder Mission, purchased Goddard’s home in 2021 when he learned that it was about to be torn down by a developer. Goddard’s wife Esther played a key role in his achievements so Slatkin named the home the “Dr. Robert and Esther Goddard Center for Innovation.”
The Wonder Mission is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating events and experiences that inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, educators, innovators, and visioneers.
In addition to Slatkin, Mayor Joseph Petty, Chief Development Officer Peter Dunn, Auburn select board vice chair Dan Carpenter, Congressman James McGovern and State Rep. David LaBoeuf spoke at the event.
The Wonder Mission plans to establish the Goddard home as a center for science education, innovation and inspiration. Slatkin said within six months or so the home will become a private museum and library open by appointment to one class of students at a time.
“The hope is to do something more permanent in Worcester,” he said, “that’s more publicly accessible because we’re in a tight residential neighborhood.”
Slatkin said he’d like the home to become a center for fundraising and anything related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Slatkin pointed out that the U.S. has fallen to 38th in the world in graduating science and engineering majors and more than 1.5 million STEM jobs have gone unfilled because of the lack of qualified candidates.
“I want to express my sincere belief that Worcester and Auburn,” McGovern said, “can and will lead the scientific community in this commonwealth. Our future scientists and engineers and explorers and educators and visionaries will come from this city and this area and this state and we will one day dedicate monuments to them as well.”
McGovern was on hand in 2006 when Worcester dedicated a monument to Goddard.
“I still believe deeply in what I said that day,” McGovern said. “That we can all benefit from a better sense of history in this country, the achievements of the past, especially those that are so close to home.”
Petty said once the new Burncoat High School opens, the school is expected to feature classes in technology and he wonders if the school could somehow be tied into this Goddard project.
Slatkin said the aerospace community reveres Goddard, but 35-40 percent of the people in Worcester County don’t know who he is and he’d like to change that.
Slatkin plans to work with Worcester, Auburn and state and federal officials to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Goddard’s rocket launch. They will spend the next two years raising funds and determining how to best celebrate the anniversary.
Slatkin announced 14 possible ideas for the celebration, including city, state, and national proclamations creating a permanent Goddard visitor site and memorial with immersive experiences, issuing Goddard postage stamps, offering Goddard and space curricula in schools, installing Goddard statues or sculptures around the city with QR codes, placing full-scale Goddard replica rockets around the city, promoting Goddard on billboards, re-issuing Goddard books and popularizing OMG as “Oh My Goddard.”
Slatkin said he’s beginning preparations now for celebrating the 100th anniversary because he was inspired by the early planning for the 100th anniversary of Wilbur and Orville Wright creating and flying the first successful powered airplane in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, N.C. President George W. Bush was among the tens of thousands of people who attended the centennial celebration in 2003.
“The Wright Brothers just got humanity off the ground,” Slatkin said. “Goddard got humanity off the planet.”
Carpenter said that Auburn is proud to be the site of the rocket launch on Goddard’s Aunt Effie’s dairy farm, but he admitted the town didn’t always feel that way. Goddard was kicked out of town after his launch scared the neighbors and forced his Aunt Effie’s cows to fail to produce milk for five days.
“When you’re a dairy farmer, that’s a big deal,” he said.
Charles Lindbergh, who made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris in 1927, read about Goddard needing to find a new place to launch his rockets after he was banned from Auburn and he traveled to Worcester to meet with him.
Linbergh spent an afternoon with Robert and Esther Goddard on their sun porch and convinced him to reach out to the Daniel Guggenheim Foundation for funding. The foundation eventually funded his research at Fort Devens and later in Roswell, New Mexico.
The Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA’s premiere space flight complex and home to the country’s largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists, opened in 1959 in Maryland.
Goddard died at age 62 in Baltimore in 1945 and he is buried in Hope Cemetery in Worcester.
The city will form a steering committee to finalize plans for the celebration. If interested in joining, email citymanager@worcesterma.gov or call the mayor’s office at 508-799-1153, X-31351.
