flâneur

Founders: #164 Robert Goddard (Rocket Man)

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What I learned from reading Rocket Man: Robert Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age by David A. Clary. --- [18:16] For even though I reasoned with myself that the thing was impossible, there was something inside me which simply would not stop working. [20:08] Anything is possible with the man who makes the best use of every minute of his time. [20:18] There are limitless opportunities open to the man who appreciates the fact that his own mind is the sole key that unlocks them. [32:55] It’s appalling how short life is and how much there is to do. We have to be sports, take chances, and do what we can. [35:57] There were limits to Goddard’s ability as a salesman, beginning with his failure to determine the interests of his potential customers. [44:18] Goddard must be given his due. The first flight of a liquid-propelled rocket may not have looked like much but nothing like it had ever happened on Earth before. [50:28] He explained his work was aimed at high-altitude research, not outer space. The Wright Brothers, he reminded his audience, did not try to cross The Atlantic the first time up. [52:32] Emerson says, “If a man paint a better picture, preach a better sermon, or build a b

[00:00:00] Frank Browning ceased to exist at 6.43 p.m. on Friday, September 8, 1944. The street erupted as he walked down Stavely Road in London, smashing the houses on both sides and killing him instantly. Rescue squads found one other dead and 20 injured in the rubble of their houses, which surrounded a crater 30 feet wide and 10 feet deep in the center of the concrete roadway. So began Nazi Germany's V2 campaign, a barrage of stratospheric ballistic missiles bearing one-tom bombs. They dropped without warning. They were remarkably sophisticated machines, powered by liquid fuel rockets and…

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