Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov (July 29, 1900 – March 3, 1974) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

engineer who was a pioneer of

spacecraft design The design of spacecraft covers a broad area, including the design of both robotic spacecraft (satellites and planetary probes), and spacecraft for human spaceflight ( spaceships and space stations). Origin Spacecraft design was born as a dis ...

and rocketry. Mikhail Tikhonravov was born in

Vladimir, Russia Vladimir ( rus, Влади́мир, p=vlɐ'dʲimʲɪr, a=Ru-Владимир.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, east of Moscow. It is served by a railway and the M7 motorway. ...

. He attended the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy from 1922 to 1925, where he was exposed to

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (russian: Константи́н Эдуа́рдович Циолко́вский , , p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɪdʊˈardəvʲɪtɕ tsɨɐlˈkofskʲɪj , a=Ru-Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.oga; – 19 September 1935) ...

's ideas of spaceflight. After graduation and until 1931 worked in several aircraft industries and was engaged in developing gliders. From 1931 and on, devoted himself to the development of the field of rocketry. In 1932, he joined

Group for the Study of Reactive Motion The Moscow-based Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (also 'Group for the Investigation of Reactive Engines and Reactive Flight' and 'Jet Propulsion Study Group') (russian: Группа изучения реактивного движения, ...

(GIRD), as one of the four brigade leaders. His brigade built the GIRD-09 rocket, fueled by liquid oxygen and jellied gasoline, and launched on August 17, 1933. Tikhonravov became part of the

Reactive Scientific Research Institute Reactive Scientific Research Institute (commonly known by the joint initialism RNII; russian: Реактивный научно-исследовательский институт, Reaktivnyy nauchno-issledovatel’skiy institut) was one of the ...

(RNII) when GIRD and the

Gas Dynamics Laboratory Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) (russian: Газодинамическая лаборатория) was the first Soviet research and development laboratory to focus on rocket technology. Its activities were initially devoted to the development o ...

(GDL) merged in 1933. From 1938 Tikhonravov researched rocket engines with liquid fuel and developed rockets for the purpose of upper atmosphere layers’ research. In the end of the 1930s, the development of rockets with liquid fuel was stopped and Tikhonravov concentrated on the development of the projectiles of the weapon system

Katyusha rocket launcher The Katyusha ( rus, Катю́ша, p=kɐˈtʲuʂə, a=Ru-Катюша.ogg) is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver explosives to a target area ...

. In 1946, he became deputy chief of NII-4 in the Academy of Artillery Science and developed

Project VR-190 VR-190 (russian: ВР-190; ''Vysotnaya Raketa,'' literally, ''high-altitude rocket'') was the USSR's first rocket project designed to launch a human into suborbital space flight on a ballistic trajectory. The project ran in the 1940s and 1950s a ...

. Tikhonravov in 1948 proposed a type of

multistage rocket A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage i ...

in which the engines would work in parallel (packet) in order to achieve a greater flight range. His announcement was met with ridicule and skepticism by his scientific colleagues because at that time, it was believed that 1000 km was the absolute limit for rocket range. In NII-4 he led a team of researchers that did important studies on packet rockets, satellite orbital motion, optimal pitch control programs for launching into orbit, reentry trajectories and heat shielding. This team designed Sputnik-3, Luna-1, Luna-3, Luna-4 and the early Venus and Mars probes. In 1956,

Sergey Korolev Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kərɐˈlʲɵf, Ru-Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.ogg; ukr, Сергій Павлович Корольов, ...

had Tikhonravov and his team (including

Mstislav Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh (russian: Мстисла́в Все́володович Ке́лдыш; – 24 June 1978) was a Soviet mathematician who worked as an engineer in the Soviet space program. He was the academician of the Academy o ...

) transferred into his bureau, OKB-1. After the launch of Sputnik-1 and a satellite with an animal on board, Tikhonravov (along with a number of other scientists) received the Lenin award (1957). While he was not credited for much of his work Michail Tikhonravov was a lead scientist for the sputnik 1 rocket and satellite The classically educated Tikhonravov has been credited for coining and popularizing the term ''

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

'' ("space traveller"), to be distinct from the English ''astronaut''. Tikhonravov Crater on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

is named after Mikhail Tikhonravov.

References

Literature

* "Rockets and people" – B. E. Chertok, M: "mechanical engineering", 1999. * "S. P. Korolev. Encyclopedia of life and creativity" - edited by C. A. Lopota, RSC Energia. S. P. Korolev, 2014

External links

Detailed Biography by Anatoly Zak
NASA {{DEFAULTSORT:Tikhonravov, Mikhail Klavdievich 1900 births 1974 deaths Early spaceflight scientists People from Vladimir, Russia Soviet aerospace engineers Soviet space program personnel Soviet spaceflight pioneers Moscow Aviation Institute faculty Soviet inventors Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery