Russian rocket expert, generally considered to be the father of astronautics and rocket dynamics.

Having lost his hearing at the age of ten, Tsiolkovsky left school and began to educate himself at home. A brilliant child, he later studied in Moscow and became a teacher. In his spare time, he wrote science fiction. He soon introduced real technical problems into his writings and evolved from fiction writer to scientist and theoretician. He went on to play a key role in the development of the Russian space programme and became a member of the Soviet Academy of Science in 1919.

Tsiolkovsky's great purpose was not simply for humans to visit outer space, but for them to live there. His most important work was concerned with the possibility of rocket flight into outer space. He published over 500 works about space travel and related subjects including the design and construction of space rockets, steerable rocket engines, multi-stage boosters and life in space. He proposed the construction of artificial earth satellites, including manned space platforms, to be used as way stations in interplanetary travel.

Tsiolkovsky was so far ahead of his time that the majority of his thinking developed before the first successful airplane flight.