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A key advance was the invention of the first liquid-fuelled rocket in 1926 by the American Robert Goddard in Auburn, Massachusetts. Goddard is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern rocket era.
The rocket flew -- 152 feet -- about the same distance as the Wright Brothers' first manned flight -- but it did fly! It was the first flight of a liquid-fueled rocket in history. When Goddard was later approached by the American Interplanetary Society in 1930 to publicize his work, Goddard refused.