“Pioneers of Rocket Technology Selected Works”
Academy of Science of the USSR, «Nauka», Moscow, 1964, pp. 1-20; 501-669
NASA TT F-9285
Academy of Sciences of the USSR
Institute for the History of Natural Science and Technology
Translation of “Pionery raketnoy tekhniki – Kibal’chich, Tsiolkovskiy, Tsander, Kondratyuk – Izbrannyye trudy.” Izdatel’stvo “Nauka,” Moscow, 1964, pp. 1-20; 501-669.
ABSTRACT
The present collection contains selected representative writings of two of the earliest thinkers on rocketry in pre-revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union, an editorial preface, a historical outline of pioneer rocket technology, relevant commentaries, and a complete bibliography, all extracted and translated from the larger work of the sametitle.
The two authors whoseworks have been selected, N. I. Kibal’chich (“Concept for an Aeronautical Machine”) and Yu. V. Kondratyuk (“To Whomsoever will Read in Order to Build”; “Conquest of Interplanetary Space”), are distinct in that they are menessentially without formal education, least of all in rocketry. The former wrote his “concept” in the last days of his life before being executed, in 1881, for momplicity in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. The second author resided in the remote farming region of Novosibirsk, writing his work while employed in menial labor.
The editorial preface sets the stage by contrasting the con- cepts of the early pioneers of rocket technology with the most recent advances in this field, notably the impressive feats of the Soviet cosmonauts.
The historical outline completes the picture by presenting a grand sweepfrom the sheer fantasies of Cyrano de Bergerac in the seventeenth century to the beginning of the World War II, i.e., at which time rocket technology came into its own and gained universal recognition, rather than the attention of science fiction writers and a small handful of gifted visionaries.
It is stressed that the reader should bear in mind, in light of the present State-of-the-art, that the contents of this collection contain a few ideas that are now knownto be erroneous, a mannerof looking at phenomenathat is archaic or even quaint, and a certain phraseology that comes through even in translation; however, the great bulk of the material should be recognized as basically sound and instructive. Again in light of modern-day knowledge, the works of the authors included herein admirably display their insight and foresight.
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