Excessive secrecy can kill a design project

Goddard's machine nevertheless took flight with an average altitude of 41 feet, speed of 60 mph, and it flew for a total of 2.5 seconds before landing 184 ft from its launching frame. This event was the "Kitty Hawk" of modern rocketry.

Goddard's neighbors soon decided that having a such events close by was not a good idea, and with the backing of Charles Lindbergh and the Guggenheim family the inventor continued his experiments in Roswell, New Mexico. But Goddard was a secretive sort. And rather than building an institution and a large team to carry the work forward, he instead built and tested almost everything himself -- publishing very little about his progress and sharing the insights of his discoveries only with his pillow.

Meanwhile Wernher Von Braun in Germany and the research teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena were unknowingly duplicating Goddard's discoveries and soon were building much larger and greatly more capable vehicles.

Goddard had come to understand the basic principles of liquid fueled rocketry, and he had invented many of the methods and formulas still used today, yet his drive to maintain secrecy and control over the process meant that his work would soon be redone by others.

Today Von Braun is considered the true father of modern rocketry and is widely credited beyond anyone else for placing men on the moon, while Goddard's achievements are considered a dead end.