After graduating, Goett worked at private aeronautics firms before joining the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)
Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in 1936. He moved to
Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in 1948 and served as chief of the full-scale and flight research division until 1959. There, he directed studies on the
aerodynamics of aircraft and
spacecraft in the
upper atmosphere, and led research on aircraft stability, control and guidance, and
atmospheric entry heating. He was described by
Stanley F. Schmidt, who worked under him at Ames, as one of the four most influential men at Ames alongside
Jack Parsons,
Smith J. DeFrance, and
Harry Julian Allen, and as "one of the greatest technical leaders of our times". After the establishment of NASA in October 1958, Goett chaired the NASA committee (called the
Goett Committee) that developed early space research at the agency, including a national booster program, planning for
crewed spaceflight, and re-entry flight research. His committee established a
Moon landing as NASA's principal goal.Goett was appointed the first director of Goddard Space Flight Center in 1959. Under his leadership, the center executed 35
satellite projects with 100+ scientific experiments. He was succeeded as director by
John F. Clark in 1966, after which he became a special assistant to
NASA administrator James E. Webb. He left public service and became director for plans and programs at
Philco Western Development Labs in
California. He also played a central role in the development of
communications satellites at
Ford Aerospace before retiring in 1975. He died at the
Stanford University Hospital in
Palo Alto in 2000. ==Awards==