Who is considered the father of modern rocketry?

Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945) is considered the father of modern rocket propulsion. A physicist of great insight, Goddard also had a unique genius for invention. One of Goddard's many firsts was the successful test of the world's first liquid-propelled rocket. In 1914, Goddard received two U.S. patents - one was for a rocket using liquid fuel; the second was for a two or three stage rocket using solid fuel. At his own expense, he began to make systematic studies about propulsion provided by various types of gunpowder. In 1916, Goddard requested funds of the Smithsonian Institution so that he could continue his research. That proposal was published in 1920 along with his subsequent research and Navy work as Smithsonian Miscellaneous Publication No. 2540 "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." In it, he detailed his search for methods of raising weather-recording instruments higher than sounding balloons. In this search, as he related, he developed the mathematical theories of rocket propulsion.

Towards the end the report, Goddard outlined the possibility of a rocket reaching the Moon and exploding a load of flash powder there to mark its arrival. It is in memory of this brilliant scientist that NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was established on May 1, 1959.