Robert H. Goddard was a scientist, and a U.S. professor of physics. As a child he had many problems with disease. On March 16, 1926, he became the first person in the world to build and launch a liquid-fueled rocket. From 1930 to 1935 Goddard launched rockets that attained speeds of up to 885 km/h (550 mph). Though his work in the field was revolutionary, he was sometimes ridiculed for his theories about space flight. As a child, Goddard was a thin and frail boy who was almost always in fragile