Unimpressive by today's standards, Robert Goddard's rocket flight peaked at an altitude of only 12.5 meters, and flew a distance of 56 meters before crashing. But that two-and-a-half-second flight changed the course of history. Space historian Roger Launius called it the "Kitty Hawk of space-flight," a reference to the Wright Brothers historic first powered airplane flight. Goddard, then the director of Physical Laboratories at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., launched the first liquid-fueled rocket from a Massachusetts farm, according to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Web site.
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