In 1981, he managed the Orient Express night club, a venue in Burlington, Ontario, where many world class rock acts performed including Rick Derringer, Steppenwolf, Joe Perry and Mountain.
Godwin also contributed feature articles to such publications as Goldmine (magazine)[7] and Boeing Employee Times[8][9] In October 2015, Godwin wrote and published The First Scientific Concept of Rockets for Space Travel,[10] an essay in which he asserted that a Scottish Presbyterian Minister and Canadian University Principal named William Leitch was the first scientist to determine, for the correct reasons, that rockets were the best method for powering space flight.
Godwin's essay was publicly endorsed by Frank H. Winter, retired Curator of Rocketry at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and by David Baker, editor of the British Interplanetary Society's magazine, Spaceflight.
[11][12] Leitch's proposal for rockets appeared in September 1861 in the magazine Good Words, effectively pre-dating the modern proponents of rocketry, such as Robert Hutchings Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky by more than three decades.
In late 2016 Godwin released his findings as a book entitled William Leitch - Presbyterian Scientist & The Concept of Rocket Space Flight 1854-1864.
[14] Between 1987 and 1998 Collector's Guide Publishing released books on many different rock artists including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Kate Bush, Alice Cooper, Wishbone Ash and Kiss.
[16][17][18][19] Godwin has edited dozens of books including the NASA Mission Reports series (41 titles as of 2024),[20] Dyna-Soar Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System,[21] Rocket & Space Corporation Energia, X-15,[22] The Conquest of Space, Columbia Accident Investigation Report[23] as well as a series of vintage science fiction books in 2006 under the Apogee Science Fiction imprint.
In 1994 his U.S. based company Griffin Video commercially released a VHS tape of the Classic Pictures space documentary "One Small Step", narrated by actor Tom Baker.
At the Oshkosh air show, on 26 July 2019, for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight to the Moon, Godwin premiered newly enhanced footage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface.
[37] In 2007 the International Astronomical Union's Committee for Small Body Nomenclature approved the naming of a main belt asteroid after Robert and his brother Richard Godwin for their efforts in documenting space history and raising public awareness about Near Earth Objects.