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 nationa ...
.
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 ...
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 and later,
Artem Mikoyan. Then he moved to the field of ballistic missiles, where he first was in charge of
guidance systems. As
Sergei Korolev’s associate, he set up a rocket propulsion centre in
Dnepropetrovsk in
UkSSR which later formed the basis of his own
OKB-586 design bureau in 1954. At first, Yangel’s facility served to mass-produce and further develop
intercontinental ballistic missiles (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 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, Soviet space surveillance and early warn ...
respectively, which are still in use today. Yangel narrowly avoided death during the development of the R-16 in the 1960
Nedelin catastrophe.
Yangel's bureau was part of the
Ministry of General Machine Building headed by
Sergey Afanasyev.
For his outstanding work, Mikhail Yangel was awarded the
Lenin Prize in 1960 and
USSR State Prize in 1967. He was also awarded four
Orders of Lenin,
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
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 ...
*A
Metro 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 River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Ky ...
*One of the two major streets in
Baikonur (the other is in honor of his main rival
Sergei Korolev)
*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
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
discovered by
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, ...
astronomer
Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1978 is named after him.
See also
*
Sergei Korolev
*
Vladimir Chelomey
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: 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.,
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Ky ...
, 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