fandomhigh | American Inventors, Tuesday, November 29, 2022

"Welcome back!" Tony said. "Hopefully everyone had a nice break from classes this past week. And we have another holiday fast approaching, but before that... let's move onto another inventor who changed the world... Jack Parsons. Who was a pioneer in rocket technology."

Steve gave Tony a fond little grin. "Tony loves rocket science. But he's smart enough not to die by blowing himself up with an experiment, right, Tony?"

Right, Tony?

"It certainly helps to have work to piggy-back off of for safety measures," Tony added. "Jack Parsons was mostly self-taught scientist who pushed rockets--which were considered mostly science fiction at the time--into reality. He developed a much safer fuel source for the propulsion that would later be adapted for space flight rather than simply rockets for wartime."

"He worked with scientists whose names are on buildings now," Steve said, "like Goddard and Werner von Braun. His genius was, frankly, as volatile as the compounds he was working with."

"And his personal life was--well, very interesting in conjunction with what he accomplished in his short life," Tony said slowly. "Because he did, indeed, die from one of his rocket experiments. But his impact is without question. So! Let us know if you think the burn bright and fast is better than a steady level of contributions to the world."

"Having done the other," Steve said a little cryptically, "I vote for the slow and steady option."