Robert Goddard Statue and Rocket

Roswell, New Mexico

Roswell is home to one outer space attraction that has nothing to do with aliens: a statue of rocket pioneer Robert Goddard.

In the 1930s, years before Roswell became synonymous with extraterrestrials, it was the home of Goddard and his rocket propulsion experiments. For over a decade Goddard built and launched rockets at a ranch a few miles outside of town. He liked Roswell: a sleepy village that didn't have a lot of people who might ask him nosy questions or accidentally be under his rockets when they crashed back to earth.

Titled "Visions of Space," the Goddard figure is shown wearing a floppy hat, standing in a doorway, pointing a telescope in the direction of one of his rockets -- yes, one of his actual, slightly battered rockets -- standing inside its original tall, skeletal launch tower. His finger presses a primitive control panel button to either send the sky candle heavenward or to blow it up on the prairie. He never knew which.

The statue stands outside of the Roswell Museum, which exhibits a replica of Goddard's Roswell workshop and more of his rockets inside -- and a moon rock!