Replica of the first liquid-fuelled rocket from 1926. Marking the 100th anniversary of powered flight (1903), and commissioned by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a team of engineers from Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Alabama, USA, built a replica of the first liquid-fuelled rocket. The original was designed and built by rocketry pioneer Robert H. Goddard in 1926. The Marshall design team stayed as close as possible to an authentic reconstruction. The same propellants were used (liquid oxygen and gasoline), and they tried to construct the replica using the original materials and design. Tim Sanders (foreground) was Technical Project Manager of the replication project, assisted by John London (background, left) and Robert Sackheim (background, right), the Assistant Director and Chief Engineer for Space Propulsion at the centre. Photographed in 2003. |