The first modern rocket launched 100 years ago beginning a century of both innovations and challenges for spaceflight

Robert Goddard, considered the father of modern rocketry, standing with a rocket in 1935. Esther Goddard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images  – By Michael Carrafiello, Professor of History, Miami University Published: 2026 Mar 16 – Apollo 11 first landed astronauts on the Moon in 1969, but …