"THE UNDISPUTED FATHER OF MODERN ROCKETRY"

GODDARD, Robert H. Rockets: Comprising "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" and "Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development." New York: American Rocket Society, (1946). Tall octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $1850.

First edition in book form of Goddard's two seminal papers on rocket fuel, proposing that liquid-fueled rocket propulsion could be used to attain escape velocity and thereby land a projectile on the moon. With portrait frontispiece and numerous photographic plates.

"Goddard became posthumously world-famous as one of three scientific pioneers of rocketry… He worked out the theory of rocket propulsion independently; and then almost alone he designed, built, tested, and flew the first liquid-fuel rocket on 16 March 1926… His earlier publication in 1919 of A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes… laid the foundation from which team workers could launch men to the moon" (DSB). This is the first combined printing of the two famous reports "on which all modern jet propulsion and rocket engineering are based," first published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Documented with numerous photographs showing launch apparatuses and tracking equipment.

Book with only stray red pen mark to endpaper, dust jacket with slight rubbing and soiling and a bit of toning to extremities. A near-fine copy.