Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel (russian: Михаил Кузьмич Янгель; 7 November 1911 – 25 October 1971), 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 born in Irkutsk who was the leading designer in the missile program of the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Biography

Yangel was the grandson of a Russian political prisoner who had been deported to

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

by the Tsarist regime. Yangel's career started as an aviation engineer, after graduating from Moscow Aviation Institute in 1937. He worked with famous aircraft designers

Nikolai Polikarpov Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Полика́рпов; – 30 July 1944) was a Soviet aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer, known as the "King of Fighters". He designed the I-15 series of ...

and later,

Artem Mikoyan Artem (Artyom) Ivanovich Mikoyan (russian: Артём Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Արտյոմ (Անուշավան) Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան, translit=''Artyom (Anushavan) Hovhannesi Mikoyan''; – 9 December 1970) was a ...

. Then he moved to the field of ballistic missiles, where he first was in charge of guidance systems. As

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

’s associate, he set up a rocket propulsion centre in

Dnepropetrovsk Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

in UkSSR which later formed the basis of his own

OKB-586 Pivdenne Design Office ( uk, Державне конструкторське бюро «Південне» ім. М. К. Янгеля , lit=State design bureau "Southern", named after M. K. Yangel, translit=Derzhavne konstruktors ...

design bureau in 1954. At first, Yangel’s facility served to mass-produce and further develop

intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...

s (ICBMs) in which area Yangel was a pioneer of storeable hypergolic fuels. His bureau designed the R-12, R-16 and R-36, whose launch vehicle adaptations are known as Kosmos,

Tsyklon The Tsyklon (Циклон, "Cyclone", also known as Tsiklon), GRAU index 11K67, was a Soviet-designed expendable launch system, primarily used to put Cosmos satellites into low Earth orbit. It is based on the R-36 intercontinental ballistic mi ...

and

Dnepr Dnepr may refer to: *Dnieper, a river flowing through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea * Dnepr (motorcycle), a Ukraininan motocycle brand * Dnepr (rocket), a 1999 space launch vehicle *Dnepr radar Dnepr may refer to: *Dnieper, a river ...

respectively, which are still in use today. Yangel narrowly avoided death during the development of the R-16 in the 1960

Nedelin catastrophe The Nedelin catastrophe or Nedelin disaster was a launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960 at Baikonur test range (of which Baikonur Cosmodrome is a part), during the development of the Soviet R-16 (missile), R-16 Intercontinental ...

. Yangel's bureau was part of the

Ministry of General Machine Building The Ministry of General Machine-Building Industry of the USSR (MOM) ( Russian: ''Министерство общего машиностроения СССР'') was a government ministry of the Soviet Union. The Ministry headquarters was located i ...

headed by

Sergey Afanasyev Sergey Afanasyev may refer to: *Sergey Afanasyev (engineer) (1918–2001), Soviet engineer and space and defense industry executive * Sergey Afanasyev (athlete) (born 1964), Russian middle-distance runner, in 1989 European Athletics Indoor Champio ...

. For his outstanding work, Mikhail Yangel was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1960 and

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

in 1967. He was also awarded four

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

Order of the October Revolution The Order of the October Revolution (russian: Орден Октябрьской Революции, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on October 31, 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferr ...

, and numerous

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

s. He died in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1971. Several notable places were named after Yangel: *A street in the

Chertanovo Chertanovo (russian: Чертаново) is a housing area in the Southern Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia. The name derives from Chertanovo village first mentioned in 1665. The territory became part of Moscow in 1960. The area is 21,3&n ...

neighborhood in

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

station Ulitsa Akademika Yangelya on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line (near the above street) *A street in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

*One of the two major streets in Baikonur (the other is in honor of his main rival

) *The crater Yangel on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. A

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

3039 Yangel discovered by

astronomer

Lyudmila Zhuravlyova Lyudmila Vasilyevna Zhuravleva (russian: Людмила Васильевна Журавлёва, uk, Людмила Василівна Журавльова, Ljudmyla Vasylivna Žuravljova; born 22 May 1946) is a Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian ast ...

in 1978 is named after him.

Literature

"Rockets and people"
– B. E. Chertok, M: "mechanical engineering", 1999. *"Testing of rocket and space technology - the business of my life" Events and facts - A.I. Ostashev, Korolyov, 200

*"Baikonur. Korolev. Yangel." - M. I. Kuznetsk,

Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the ...

: IPF "Voronezh", 1997, ; * A.I. Ostashev, ''Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov - The Genius of the 20th Century'' — 2010 M. of Public Educational Institution of Higher Professional Training MGUL . *"Bank of the Universe" - edited by Boltenko A. C.,

, 2014., publishing house "Phoenix", * "S. P. Korolev. Encyclopedia of life and creativity" - edited by C. A. Lopota, RSC Energia. S. P. Korolev, 2014
The official website of the city administration Baikonur - Honorary citizens of Baikonur
* "Space science city Korolev" - Author: Posamentir R. D. M: publisher SP Struchenevsky O. V.,

References

family history {{DEFAULTSORT:Yangel, Mikhail Kuzmich 1911 births 1971 deaths People from Irkutsk Governorate Russian people of Ukrainian descent Moscow Aviation Institute alumni Soviet engineers 20th-century Russian engineers Russian inventors Soviet space program personnel Soviet spaceflight pioneers Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the USSR State Prize Lenin Prize winners Early spaceflight scientists Rocket scientists Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Baikonur Cosmodrome People from Irkutsk Oblast

Biography

See also

Literature

References