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Goddard Day

History ยท March 16

A day honoring Robert Goddard, the American physicist and engineer who built and launched the first liquid-fueled rocket.

Goddard Day

Goddard Day falls on Tuesday, March 16, 2027. That is 140 days away.

Robert Goddard was an American physicist who spent his working life on a question most people of his era treated as fantasy: how to build a rocket that could climb beyond the air. He is remembered for building and launching the first liquid-fueled rocket, a spindly frame of pipes and tanks that rose from a snowy Massachusetts field.

That first flight was short and low. The rocket burned gasoline and liquid oxygen, and it came down in a cabbage patch not far from where it started. It did not look like much, but it showed that liquid propellants could work, and the same basic idea still drives many large rockets.

Goddard went on to test ideas that later became standard, including steering a rocket with movable vanes in its exhaust and using gyroscopes to keep it pointed the right way. He worked with small teams and patented many of his designs.

People mark the day by reading about his experiments, visiting science museums or launching model rockets with family and friends. Students sometimes use it as a reason to sketch their own rocket designs or to learn the basic physics of thrust. NASA named its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland after him, and its visitor center is a common stop for people curious about his work.

He kept careful notebooks, and many of his pages are full of plain sketches, crossed out numbers and second attempts.

Ways to celebrate

Dates

YearDate
2026Monday, March 16
2027Tuesday, March 16
2028Thursday, March 16
2029Friday, March 16
2030Saturday, March 16

All national days on March 16

Also on March 16

Categories: History days