Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard laid the foundations for the science of rocket propulsion here. From 1930 to 1942, he used this tower to launch liquid propellant rockets as he developed a means for exploring extreme altitudes. In 1927, Robert H. Goddard wrote that as he looked toward the fields at the east, he imagined how wonderful it would be to make some device with even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale if sent up from the meadow at his feet.