by Joseph F. Alcock

Tomorrow the Moon is the story of the Space Age, as seen through the eyes of its founders. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, and Hermann Oberth were the “Fathers of the Space Age,” according to NASA.  Two others: Sergei Korolev,  of the Soviet Union, and Wernher von Braun, of the United States, competed in the Space Race of the 1960s culminating in the first successful landing on the Moon in July 1969. Their story dates back to the late nineteenth century.  All of them were inspired by Jules Verne and his book, From the Earth to the Moon.

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Excerpt from Tomorrow the Moon, The Story of the Space Age:

“Even though the valve was opened, the rocket didn’t rise at first, but the flame came out and there was a steady roar.  After a number of seconds it rose, slowly until it cleared the frame, and then at express-train speed, curved over to the left, and struck the ice and snow, still going at a rapid rate.  It looked almost magical as it rose, without any appreciable greater noise or flame.  I didn’t know what to expect, so I yelled, “I think I’ll get the hell out of here,” as I ran for some shelter.

The rocket weighed about 10 pounds but only created about nine pounds of thrust.  Thus, it didn’t rise for 20 seconds, until the excess propellants were burned off.  It rose 41 feet and landed 184 feet away.  The entire flight lasted only 2 ½ seconds.”

      – Robert Goddard’s description of the first successful launch of a liquid propellant rocket, 26 March 1926.