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Hermann Oberth
(25 Jun 1894 - 29 Dec 1989)
Austro-German rocket engineer who was one of the founders of space flight. In 1923, he published a mathematical analysis of the rocket speed that would allow it to escape Earth’s gravitational pull. He launched a liquid-propellant rocket 7 May 1931.
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Science Quotes by Hermann Oberth (5 quotes)
I refrained from writing another one, thinking to myself: Never mind, I will prove that I am able to become a greater scientist than some of you, even without the title of doctor.
— Hermann Oberth
Reaction when his thesis (1922) on rocket experiments was rejected as too cursory. In Astronautics (1959), 4, No. 6, 103.
If there is a small rocket on top of a big one, and if the big one is jettisoned and the small one is ignited, then their speeds are added.
— Hermann Oberth
In 'My Contributions to Astronautics' (1967), collected in Smithsonian Annals of Flight (1971), 131.
In the United States, I am often addressed as a doctor. I should like to point out, however, that I am not such and shall never think of becoming one.
— Hermann Oberth
In Astronautics (1959), 4, No. 6, 103. Also As quoted in Arthur C. Clarke, The Coming of the Space Age: Famous Accounts of Man’s Probing of the Probing of the Universe (1967), 118.
Our educational system is like an automobile which has strong rear lights, brightly illuminating the past. But looking forward things are barely discernible.
— Hermann Oberth
As quoted by his daughter, as given in Marsha Freeman, How We Got to the Moon: The Story of the German Space Pioneers (1993), 5.
This is the goal: To make available for life every place where life is possible. To make inhabitable all worlds as yet uninhabitable, and all life purposeful.
— Hermann Oberth
In G.P.H. Freville (trans.), Man Into Space: New Projects for Rocket and Space Travel (1957), 167. Quoted, for example, in Charles H. Holbrow, 'Suburbs in Space', The Rotarian (Jun 1978), 19.
Quotes by others about Hermann Oberth (1)
I have a boundless admiration for the solitary genius which enabled [Hermann Oberth] to bring into focus all of the essential elements of a gigantic concept, together with the human greatness which allowed him, in shy reserve, to bear with equanimity the “crucify hims” as well as the “hosannas” of public opinion. I myself owe him a debt of gratitude not only for being the guiding light of my life, but also for my first contact with the theoretical and practical aspects of rocket technology and space travel.
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See also:
- 25 Jun - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Oberth's birth.
- Hermann Oberth: The Father of Space Flight, by Boris V. Rauschenbach. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
