ROCKET MAN

Working in isolation in the decades before World War II, Robert Goddard pioneered the technical developments that made rocket propulsion feasible—but was ridiculed in the press for his “loony” ideas about rocketing though space. Only the Germans took him seriously, and they used his work to develop the V2 rocket, the world’s first stratospheric ballistic missile, which rained destruction on London and other European cities during World War II. The original “rocket scientist,” Goddard was the first man to propel a vehicle faster than the speed of sound.His V2 rocket finally woke up the U.S.…