Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky's formal education was tragically terminated at age 10 when he suffered a near-total hearing loss from scarlet fever. Unwilling to let this handicap stand in his way, he began to educate himself at home. His extraordinary success was recognized by his family, who then sent him to Moscow to complete his education. Because of Tsiolkovsky's proficiency in mathematics and the sciences, he eventually won a teaching post at Kaluga. Tsiolkovsky the school teacher was consumed by his passion for the sciences. He tried his hand at science fiction and, with the inspiration of Jules Verne's stories, began to write of interplanetary travel. Introducing real technical problems into his writings, such as rocket control in moving into and out of gravitational fields, Tsiolkovsky evolved from a fiction writer to scientist and theoretician. His hypotheses and calculations on a broad spectrum of matters include gyroscopic stabilization, escape velocities from the earth's gravitational field, the principle of reactive action, and the use of liquid propellants for rockets. His "Tsiolkovsky Formula" established the relationships between rocket speed, the speed of the gas at exit, and the mass of the rocket and its propellant. This fundamental principle remains basic to contemporary astronautics. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is generally considered the father of astronautics and rocket dynamics. Entering the world more than one hundred years before Sputnik became the first object rocketed into space, he prepared the way for it and all space exploration which followed.
Inducted in 1989.
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