Early history of rocket science in United States

Early in the 20th century, Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) American college professor and scientist, conducted a variety of practical experiments in rocketry. He was interested in a way of achieving higher altitudes than were possible for lighter-than-air balloons. 

In 1920, Goddard published these ideas and experimental results in A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. The work included remarks about sending a solid-fuel rocket to the Moon, which attracted worldwide attention

Goddard's earliest experiments were with solid-propellant rockets. In spite of numerous difficulties, Goddard achieved the first successful flight with a liquid propellant rocket on March 16, 1926. Fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline, the rocket flew for only two and a half seconds, climbed 12.5 meters, and landed 56 meters away in a cabbage patch.

The United States entered the satellite-launching business on January 31, 1958 with the successful launch of Explorer 1. The satellite was launched atop the Juno 1, a modified Jupiter-C booster.

On May 5, 1961, American astronaut Alan Shepherd, Jr., lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, inside his Freedom 7 Mercury space capsule, which sat atop a Redstone rocket. The rocket did not have enough power to send the craft into orbit.

1959-63 – Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. The Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on 20 February 1962 was the first Mercury flight to achieve this goal.
Early history of rocket science in United States