kallis@pen.DEC (01/10/86)
> Goddard made his first flights in Auburn, MA. After some problems there, >I think he set something on fire) he started using a launch site in >Harvard, MA, now (then?) on Fort Devens, about a mile from where I now >live. (He rapidly outgrew this site and moved to [White Sands?].) ... As someone who's admored Goddard greatly, a few more facts. He made his first flight at his aunt's farm. In a subsequent launch, he set a barn on fire, which alarmed his neighbors. His subsequent flights were done as you say in the vicinity of Ft. Devens. He moved because he's contracted tuburculosis, and was told to move to a dry climate. He moved to New Mexico to the Mescalero Ranch, a site he purchased. His initial work had come to the attention of Charles Lindburgh, and he was funded through grants from the Guggenheim Foundation. The monument to Goddard's first liquid-rocket launch was funded by Wernher von Braun, and is located at the launch site, now on a golf course. Steve Kallis, Jr.