Constantin Tsiolkovski

A biography of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935), the father of cosmonautics, written by Soviet professor Arkady Kosmodemyansky and translated from the Russian by V. Joukov. In eleven chapters, the book traces the scientist's life from his self-taught scientific beginnings to his founding contributions: work on the all-metal dirigible, construction of an aerodynamic wind tunnel, formulation of the reaction propulsion principle, design of liquid-fuel and multi-stage rockets, and the theory of interplanetary travel. Published in Moscow by the Foreign Languages Publishing House in 1957, the very year of Sputnik's launch and the centenary of Tsiolkovsky's birth, the volume aims to introduce French-speaking readers to the foundational role of Tsiolkovsky in modern astronautics.