Aerospace began on March 16, 1926 with Robert H. Goddard’s launch of the first liquid-fueled rocket from a atop Pakachoag Hill in Auburn, Massachusetts, just South of Worcester’s Holy Cross College. He was the first of a series of people and companies with a rich legacy in the critical developments which make space exploration and travel possible. 

In particular, Massachusetts has played an important role in the US manned space program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) producing more astronauts than any other private university, with over 30 MIT graduates logging more than 15,000 hours in space. Four of the 12 astronauts who walked on the moon during the Apollo program were MIT alumni and they spent a total of 51 hours exploring the lunar surface from 1969 through 1972. 

Massachusetts companies were important contractors in America’s pioneering space efforts. Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, MA was the first contractor awarded a major part of the Apollo program in 1961 when the Lab was chosen to develop the Apollo Guidance System. Another Massachusetts company, Raytheon, then built the hardware for the Apollo Guidance Computer in Waltham and later Sudbury, MA. Avco Corporation developed the critical Apollo command module heatshields (which protected the astronauts upon return to the earth’s atmosphere) and bonded them to the spacecraft in Lowell, MA. Itek in Lexington built the cameras that were used on Lunar Orbiter, Surveyor, Viking and the Apollo SIMbay programs. And the David Clark Company in Worcester pioneered air and space crew protective equipment design, development and manufacture since 1941, with products ranging from anti-G suits to space suits that have been used in programs including the X-15, Gemini, Apollo (worn on virtually every lunar missions) and the Space Shuttle.