Launch of Liquid-Fueled Rocket

Date: March 16, 1926 • Location: Auburn, United States

History of rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

A rocket is an elongated flying vehicle that uses a rocket engine to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Unlike jet engines, rockets are fuelled entirely by propellant which they carry, without the need for oxygen from air; consequently a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space, and indeed rocket engines operate more efficiently outside the atmosphere.