Rocket Science Collection

Valentin Glushko, Soviet scientist
Valentin Glushko (1908-1989), Soviet rocket scientist. Glushko was one of the most important scientists in the development of the Soviet space programme

Mstislav Keldysh, Russian physicist
Mstislav Keldysh (1911-1978), Russian mathematician and physicist. Keldysh spent the inter-war years working on better aerodynamical models for aircraft

Tsiolkovskys works on space conquest
Konstantin Tsiolkovskys early works on space conquest. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was a Russian rocket pioneer. Although he never built a rocket

Walt Disney and Dr. Wernher von Braun, USA, 1954. Creator: NASA
Walt Disney and Dr. Wernher von Braun, USA, 1954. Dr. Werhner von Braun, then Chief, Guided Missile Development Operation Division at Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) in Redstone Arsenal

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and rocket engineer Sergey Korolyov, 1961. Pictured at Baikonur Cosmodrome, USSR. Korolyov (1907-1966)

Dr Robert Goddard, American rocketry pioneer, c1930s. Creator: Unknown
Dr Robert Goddard, American rocketry pioneer, c1930s. Portrait of Robert H. Goddard, scientist, physicist, rocket engineer and inventor who is credited with creating

Henry Sachs with Robert Goddards Rocket in New Mexico, USA, 1930. Creator: NASA
Henry Sachs with Robert Goddards Rocket in New Mexico, USA, 1930. Henry Sachs, machinist, is shown with Dr. Robert H. Goddards rocket used in the first flight at Roswell, New Mexico on December 30

Orbital Trajectories Presentation, Huntsville, Alabama, USA, June 28, 1958. Charles Lundquist (right) gives a presentation on orbital trajectories at the Army Ballestic Missile Agency to Hermann

JATO Flight Test Crew, 1941. Creator: NASA
JATO Flight Test Crew, 1941. Flight test crew for the Jet Assisted Take-Off (JATO) experimental solid rocket booster. It was later refered to as RATO (Rocket Assisted Take-Off)

Hermann Noordung, c1920s. Creator: NASA
Hermann Noordung, c1920s. Hermann Potocnik (1892-1929), also known as Herman Noordung, was an engineer in the Austrian army

Hermann Oberth, German physicist and engineer, c1960. Creator: Richard Krauss
Hermann Oberth, German physicist and engineer, c1960. Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) is considered to be one of the top three pioneers in modern rocketry

Russian rocket engineer Sergey Korolyov with cosmonauts, Crimea, USSR, c1960. Korolyov (1907-1966) was the leading Soviet rocket engineer

Werner von Braun, German born rocket pioneer, 1944. Perfected and launched V2 rockets, September 1944. Surrendered to Americans with his team. Was also behind the American Explorer I in 1958

Eisenhower visits the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama, USA. Creator: NASA
Eisenhower visits the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama, USA. September 8, 1960. US President Eisenhower with rocket engineer Dr

Effect of twinjet exhausts in simulation take-off, USA, July 7, 1949. Creator: Unknown
Effect of twinjet exhausts in simulation take-off, USA, July 7, 1949. Study of effect of twin-jet exhausts inclined toward the ground in simulation of take-off conditions for certain engine

American Rocket Society ARS-4, 1934. Creator: NASA
American Rocket Society ARS-4, 1934. This motor was used in the flight of ARS #4 on Staten Island, New York City, USA, on September 9, 1934. It burned liquid oxygen and gasoline

Missile sketch by Sergey Korolyov
Missile sketch by the pioneering Soviet rocket scientist Sergei Korolyov (1907-1966). Korolyovs early career was involved with designing aircraft

Proton-M rocket before launch C013 / 9296
Proton-M rocket before launch. Russian Proton-M rocket before its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, to put the Dutch NSS-14 (SES-4) telecommunications satellite into orbit

Soviet Luna 16 spacecraft, 1970
Soviet Luna 16 spacecraft model, showing its launch from the Moon. The Luna 16 unmanned space probe was launched by the Soviet Union on 12th September 1970

Soviet GIRD-07 rocket, 1934
Soviet GIRD-07 rocket. This rocket was built in the 1930s by a Russian rocketry group called GIRD (the Moscow Group for Reactive Motion)

Globalstar satellite launch. Soyuz-Frigate rocket being prepared at night for the launch of four Globalstar communications satellites into Earth orbit

Soviet GIRD-09 rocket, 1933
Soviet GIRD-09 rocket. This was the first Soviet liquid-propelled rocket. GIRD 09, was launched on 17th August 1933, in the Nakhabino forests, near Moscow, Russia

First Soviet liquid-fuel rocket on display at an exhibition. The rocket is part of a timeline of the history of rocketry. The first successful Soviet liquid-fuel rocket launch took place on 17 August

TerraSAR-X satellite launch, at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. TerraSAR-X is a European satellite that uses X-band (microwave) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to observe the Earth from space

Soviet Merkulov rocket, 1936
Soviet Merkulov rocket. This experimental two-stage rocket was designed by the Soviet engineer Igor Merkulov in 1936. Merkulov was part of GIRD, the Moscow Group for Reactive Motion

First Soviet jet rocket, 1939
First Soviet jet rocket. Soviet engineer Igor Merkulov (right) and Soviet chemist Vladimir Abramov (left) working with Merkulovs jet rocket

Comos satellite launch
Cosmos satellite launch, at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Cosmos (Kosmos in Russian) is the generic name for any satellite that does not have a designated program

Genesis 2 space habitat launch, from the Yasny space centre, in the Orenburg region of Russia. Genesis 2 is an experimental unmanned inflatable space habitat

Soviet rocketry museum, 1959
Soviet rocketry museum. Museum visitor looking at the GIRD-09 rocket, the first Soviet liquid-propelled rocket. This rocket was launched in 1933 by a Russian rocketry group called GIRD

NK-33 liquid fuel rocket engine
NK-33 liquid-fuel rocket engine, museum display. The NK-33 rocket engine was an advanced design intended to be used for the first stage of the abandoned Soviet N1 Moon rocket

Konstantin Tsiolkovskys rocket plan
Konstantin Tsiolkovskys planned rocket ship. Although he never built a rocket, Tsiolkovskys (1857-1935) work was highly influential in the development of Soviet rocket and space technology

Konstantin Tsiolkovskys rocket model
Konstantin Tsiolkovskys planned rocket ship. Although he never built a rocket, Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was highly influential in the development of Soviet rocket and space technology

V-2 bumper rocket launch in USA
V-2 bumper rocket launch, USA, White Sands, New Mexico. After the Second World War a number of German rocket scientists defected to the USA

Roald Sagdeev, Russian physicist
Roald Sagdeev (1932- ), Russian physicist. Sagdeev was head of the Soviet Space Research Institute in Moscow for 15 years, from 1973 until 1988

Robert H. Goddard Collection, Roswell Museum, New Mexico, USA. Dr. Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) is often considered to be the father of modern rocketry

Aleksei Isayev, Soviet engineer
Aleksei Isayev (1908-1971), Soviet engineer and rocket scientist. Isayev began his career in aviation. He used engineering qualifications to design the undercarriages for bombers

Ivan Kleimenov, Soviet scientist
Ivan Kleimenov (1898-1938), Soviet rocket scientist and aerodynamics engineer. Kleimenov led RNII, the Soviet jet-propulsion research laboratory

Fridrikh Tsander, Russian scientist
Fridrikh Tsander (1887-1933), Russian rocket pioneer. Tsander designed the first Soviet liquid- propellant rocket, which first flew in 1933. He died the same year from typhoid fever

Mikhail Yangel, Soviet rocket scientist
Mikhail Yangel (1911-1971), Soviet scientist. Yangel was one of the most important designers of liquid-fuelled rockets in the Soviet Union

Ivan Meshchersky, Russian mathematician
Ivan Meshchersky (1859-1935), Russian mathematician. Meshchersky was an applied mathematician who earned his reputation in fluid mechanics, modelling the flow around a non-uniform wedge

Georgy Langemark, rocket scientist
Georgy Langemark (1898-1938), rocket scientist

Sergei Korolev, Soviet rocket scientist
Sergei Korolev (1907-1966), pioneering Soviet rocket scientist (left). Also seen are glider designer S.N. Lyushin (centre) and pilot Artseulov (right)

Titov and Keldysh, Soviet space pioneers
Gherman Titov and Mstislav Keldysh at the conference for general disarmament and peace, Moscow, Russia, USSR, May 1962. Titov (left, 1935- 2000) was the second Soviet in space

Georgy Babakin, Soviet scientist
Georgy Babakin (1914-1971), Soviet scientist and designer who worked on the guidance system for early missiles. Later, he helped design equipment for space exploration

R-1 Soviet rocket engine. The R-1 (SS-1 scunner, of SA11) was a Soviet copy of the German V-2 rocket. Construction of the missile began in 1947 under the orders of Stalin after the Soviets captured

Launch of an early rocket model by the American Rocket Society (ARS). ARS was founded on 4th April 1930, by a group of science fiction writers including G

Oberths book on rocketry. Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) was a German space travel pioneer. In 1922, his doctoral dissertation was rejected

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"Unveiling the Minds Behind Rocket Science: A Journey through History" Rocket science, a field that has propelled humanity into the vastness of space, owes its advancements to brilliant minds like Valentin Glushko and Mstislav Keldysh. These Soviet scientists played pivotal roles in shaping our understanding of rocket propulsion and celestial mechanics. The foundations of rocketry were laid by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, whose visionary works on space conquest paved the way for future generations. His contributions inspired countless others, including Sergei Korolev, a prominent Soviet rocket scientist who collaborated with Russian physicist Mstislav Keldysh to revolutionize space exploration. In the United States, Dr. Robert Goddard emerged as an American pioneer in rocketry during the 1930s. His groundbreaking experiments set the stage for future developments in this awe-inspiring field. Walt Disney's collaboration with Dr. Wernher von Braun further popularized rocket science and ignited public fascination with outer space. The iconic image of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin alongside renowned engineer Sergey Korolyov symbolizes a monumental milestone - mankind's first journey into orbit aboard Vostok 1 in 1961. This historic feat showcased the culmination of years of research and innovation driven by these exceptional individuals. Meanwhile, Henry Sachs stood proudly beside Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket in New Mexico during 1930 - a testament to America's early endeavors in conquering gravity’s hold on humankind. From Huntsville, Alabama came an Orbital Trajectories Presentation held on June 28th, 1958 – where experts gathered to discuss cutting-edge concepts that would shape future missions beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Today we marvel at how far we have come since those early days; however, it is crucial never to forget those who paved the path towards our current understanding of rockets and their potentialities.