#p <nat>Russian<o>physicist<n>Konstantin Tsiolkovsky<b>1857 Sep 17<d>1935 Sep 19<c>Moscow<info>Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was the son of a Polish forester who had moved to Russia. He was inspired by the novels of @Jules Verne@@ to make calculations about airships, airplanes, and rockets. An article of his, published in 1903, described the motion of a rocket in vacuum and weightlessness. His other articles were occasionally printed in Russian journals between 1896 and 1913 but attracted no notice outside Russia. He also wrote science-fiction accounts of space adventures. In 1929 he wrote about multistage rockets. Although he never built any rockets, he encouraged a group of young engineers who included @Sergei Korolev@@.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>American<o>physicist<n>Robert Goddard<b>1882 Oct 5<d>1945 Aug 10<c>Massachusetts
#p <nat>Ukranian<o>engineer<n>Sergei Korolev<b>1906 Dec 30<d>1966 Jan 14<c>Moscow<mov>1937(3)<c>Siberia<mov>1947(2)<c>Moscow<info>Sergei Korolev was the chief designer of the Soviet space program during the period 1954 to 1966. A rocket engineer in the 1930s, Korolev was arrested during the @Stalin@Joseph Stalin@ purges and sent to prison in Siberia. During World War II he was kept in a special prison, where scientists and engineers could work on projects of military significance. During this period he helped design the Katyusha rockets. After the war, Korolev was released from prison to oversee the exploitation of captured German V-2 rockets. Korolev dealt with @Nikita Khrushchev@@ in applying for funding for missile and space projects and began work on the "semyorka" ICBM in 1954. After its successful flight in June 1957, Korolev received permission to use the rocket to launch @Sputnik@@. Korolev's plans for sending probes to the moon were frustrated by engineering failures, and the first successful automated landing did not come until two weeks after his death. Korolev received posthumous honours and publicity, although while he was alive his identity was not revealed by Moscow.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<t>space<d>1926 Mar 16<n>liquid-fuel rocket<p>Goddard<info>@Goddard@@ fired the world's first successful liquid-propellant rocket. It was a simple pressure-fed rocket that burned gasoline and liquid oxygen. It traveled only 56 m, but it proved that the principle was valid.
#p <nat>German<o>engineer<n>Wernher von Braun<b>1912 Mar 23<d>1977<c>Germany<mov>1945<c>New Mexico<info>He is considered the father of the space age for his work in rocketry.
#e <t>inv<t>space<d>1942<n>V-2 rocket<p>von Braun<info>@Wernher von Braun@@ develops the V-2 surface-to-surface rocket.
#e <t>theory<t>space<d>1945 Oct<n>geostationary satellites<c>U.S.<info>The concept of using a geostationary satellite as a repeater to aid communications was first proposed by Arthur C. Clarke in the October 1945 issue of Wireless World.
#e <t>launch<d>1949 Feb 24<n>two-stage rocket<c>White Sands<info>An altitude record is set with the use of a two-stage rocket. An ex-German V-2 rocket took off from the White Sands Proving Ground. In its nose was an American-made Wac Corporal. The latter began its burn at an altitude of 20 miles and coasted upward to an altitude of 250 miles.<ref>Sci Am 1999 May pg. 12
