An American aeronautical engineer born in New York to Ukrainian parents, Michael Stoiko (1919-2010) was among the technical pioneers of the United States space programme. A graduate of the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, he joined General Electric's Project Hermes in 1946 (which fired sixty-seven captured German V-2s for study) before working on the Viking sounding rocket (1953, White Sands) and on the Vanguard and Titan launchers at Martin. A recognised specialist in Soviet astronautics, he wrote a dozen works of informed popular science, among them Soviet Rocketry: Past, Present and Future (1970) and Pioneers of Rocketry. His name appears on the National Air and Space Museum's Wall of Honor.