Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel

Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel — a Soviet designer of rocket and space complexes, an academician. Twice Hero of Socialist Labour (1959, 1961). Laureate of the Lenin Prize. Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel was born on 25 October (7 November) 1911 into a large peasant family in the village of Zyryanova in the Irkutsk Governorate. In 1926, after completing six grades, Yangel moved to Moscow to live with his older brother. In the capital he worked at a weaving factory while studying at a factory vocational school. In 1931 he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, which he graduated from with honors in 1937. After graduating, Yangel began work in the design bureau of Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov.

 

In 1938 he was sent on an extended assignment to aircraft factories in the USA. During the Great Patriotic War Yangel worked at one of the aircraft factories in Novosibirsk. After the war he worked in the design bureaus of Artem Mikoyan and Vladimir Myasishchev. From 1948 to 1950 he studied at the Academy of Aviation Industry, which he also graduated from with honors. In 1950 Yangel began working in the field of rocket and space technology and became the founder of a new direction and school in the development of rockets and spacecraft. He played an important role in the development of international cooperation among socialist countries in space research, and took part in the study of the upper atmosphere and near-Earth space as part of the "Kosmos" program. Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel died on 25 October 1971 in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.