I'm working on a astronomy question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Just over one hundred years ago, Robert Goddard described his invention of a "multiple-charge rocket" that might reach the Moon. Read the article "Believes Rocket Can Reach Moon" from the January 12, 1920 issue of the New York Times (page 1, see column 4). This rocket operated by automatically feeding solid fuel pellets into the chamber, igniting them, and discarding them, one after another. He was never able to make it work, and abandoned the rocket in favor of liquid fuel rockets in 1921.

A day later, January 13, 1920, the New York times published a criticism of Goddard's work, which has become infamous for its misconceptions about spaceflight and Newton's third law of motion. Read the article "Topics of the Times" from January 13, 1920 (page 12, see column 5, 

 write an Op-Ed rebuttal to to the Times' criticism, detailing their error(s) and explaining the correct physics. As with all newspaper rebuttals, it should be short and concise (limit your response to no more than about 400 words, shorter is better). Remember, you are writing this for an audience of non-experts who will be reading the paper the following day. Follow the advice in this article on Writing Effective Op-Eds.