Edwin Hubble

Edwin Hubble was an American astronomer who totally changed our perspective on the universe. As a young man he got a Rhodes scholarship in law from Oxford and spent a year as a lawyer. He soon found out that he was bored with law so he served in the army during WWI rising to the rank of major. Afterwards he studied hard at Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago and got a PhD in astronomy. He then got a job at the Mount Wilson Observatory where he discovered many things.
Edwin Hubble’s discoveries:

• There are other galaxies besides ours


• Hubble’s Law- the universe is expanding


• Classification system for stars


• Discovered the asteroid 1373 Cincinnati
  

Had Edwin Hubble not died in 1953, he would have received the Nobel prize for physics. Hubble will always be remembered as the “Father of Observational Cosmology”.

Jules Verne

Jules Verne (8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a famous author.He wrote famous adventure stories, some of which you probably have heard before.To name a couple there is "Journey to the center of the earth" and "2000 leagues under the sea" The books inspired many famous rocket scientists, such as Robert Goddard and Homer Hickam. Two of his most influential books were a two- part series called “From the earth to the moon” and “Around the Moon”. The story consists of a crew of three members, who were shot to the moon via a giant cannon. The capsule they rode in looked like a giant bullet and was named the “Columbiad”. It is interesting to note that he was the first to write about zero gravity, though they experienced it for a few minutes while they were between gravitational pull of the moon and the earth. Jules Verne lived in a time period wher the idea of sending a man to the moon was preposterous. But Jules Verne believed in the impossible. As he said in "From the earth to the moon": "It has often been asserted that the word "impossible" is not a French one. People have evidently been deceived by the dictionary."
Sincerely, Space Cadet

Robert Goddard

On March 16, 1926 Robert Goddard became the first person to succesfully launch a liquid-fueled rocket. It was fueled with Liquid Oxygen and Gasoline. It flew to 41 feet and crashed. The flight lasted 2.5 seconds. He was often ridiculed for his theories about space travel. Because people rejected his work, he moved to Roswell, New Mexico where he could work in secret. His record altitude for his rocket was the one he launched on March 26, 1937 which flew to 8000 - 9000ft and lasted 22.3 seconds. Unfortunately he died August 10, 1945- only 24 years before man set foot on the moon.