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Constantine Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, the founder of austronautics, was born in 1867, in the village of Izhevsk, in Ryasansky province. When he was 10 he had scarlet fever, and was left permanently deaf. This had a great influence on his life.
Tsiolkovsky carried out experiments on steam engines for a time, but then he returned to the theoretical study of the metallic dirigible. In 1887 his first published paper on the dirigible appeared. Mendeleyev was interested in this work and helped Tsiolkovsky. The account of this aeronautical work was submitted to the Academy of Sciences who regarded it favourably and made Tsiolkovsky a grant of 470 roubles.
He had given an idea about space travel. A popular report on this subject was first published in 1895. Tsiolkovsky's idea of a spaceship was based on the use of liquid fuels.
During the next 15 years Tsiolkovsky worked over other designs for spaceships.
Tsiolkovsky published several works dealing with the mathematical theory of rocket flights and space travel. Calculations made by Tsiolkovsky are used in the theory of cosmonautics and practical guided missile flights. They showed that it would be possible to travel out into space in rockets and even to set up manned space stations around the Earth.
Tsiolkovsky is called "Father of Cosmonautics" due to his contribution to the theory and practice of space flights.
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