---
title: "Konstantin Tsiolkovsky"
chunk: 3/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:03:32.859220+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The result of the first publication was not what Tsiolkovsky expected. No foreign scientists appreciated his research, which today is a major scientific discipline. In 1911, he published the second part of the work "Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices". Here Tsiolkovsky evaluated the work needed to overcome the force of gravity, determined the speed needed to propel the device into the Solar System ("escape velocity"), and examined calculation of flight time. The publication of this article made a splash in the scientific world,  and Tsiolkovsky found many friends among his fellow scientists.
In 1926–1929, Tsiolkovsky solved the practical problem regarding the role played by rocket fuel in getting to escape velocity and leaving the Earth. He showed that the final speed of the rocket depends on the rate of gas flowing from it and on how the weight of the fuel relates to the weight of the empty rocket.
Tsiolkovsky conceived a number of ideas that have been later used in rockets. They include: gas rudders (graphite) for controlling a rocket's flight and changing the trajectory of its center of mass, the use of components of the fuel to cool the outer shell of the spacecraft (during re-entry to Earth) and the walls of the combustion chamber and nozzle, a pump system for feeding the fuel components, the optimal descent trajectory of the spacecraft while returning from space, etc. 
In the field of rocket propellants, Tsiolkovsky studied a large number of different oxidizers and combustible fuels and recommended specific pairings: liquid oxygen and hydrogen, and oxygen with hydrocarbons. Tsiolkovsky did much fruitful work on the creation of the theory of jet aircraft, and invented his chart Gas Turbine Engine.  In 1927, he published the theory and design of a train on an air cushion. He first proposed a "bottom of the retractable body" chassis. 
Space flight and the airship were the main problems to which he devoted his life. Tsiolkovsky had been developing the idea of the hovercraft since 1921, publishing a fundamental paper on it in 1927, entitled "Air Resistance and the Express Train" (Russian: Сопротивление воздуха и скорый по́езд). In 1929, Tsiolkovsky proposed the construction of multistage rockets in his book Space Rocket Trains (Russian: Космические ракетные поезда).

Tsiolkovsky championed the idea of the diversity of life in the universe and was the first theorist and advocate of human spaceflight.
Hearing problems did not prevent the scientist from having a good understanding of music, as outlined in his work "The Origin of Music and Its Essence."

== Later life ==
After the October Revolution, the Cheka jailed him in the Lubyanka prison for several weeks.
Still, Tsiolkovsky supported the Bolshevik Revolution, and eager to promote science and technology, the new Soviet government elected him a member of the Socialist Academy in 1918.
He worked as a high school mathematics teacher until retiring in 1920 at the age of 63. In 1921, he received a lifetime pension.

In his late lifetime, from the mid-1920s onwards, Tsiolkovsky was honored for his pioneering work, and the Soviet state provided financial backing for his research. He was initially popularized in Soviet Russia in 1931–1932 mainly by two writers: Yakov Perelman and Nikolai Rynin. Tsiolkovsky died in Kaluga on 19 September 1935 after undergoing an operation for stomach cancer. He bequeathed his life's work to the Soviet state.

== Legacy ==
Tsiolkovsky influenced later rocket scientists throughout Europe, including Wernher von Braun. Soviet search teams at Peenemünde found a German translation of a book by Tsiolkovsky of which "almost every page...was embellished by von Braun's comments and notes." Leading Soviet rocket-engine designer Valentin Glushko and rocket designer Sergey Korolev studied Tsiolkovsky's works as youths, and both sought to turn Tsiolkovsky's theories into reality. In particular, Korolev saw traveling to Mars as the more important priority, until in 1964 he decided to compete with the American Project Apollo for the Moon.
In 1989, Tsiolkovsky was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

== Philosophical work ==

In 1928, Tsiolkovsky wrote a book called The Will of the Universe: The Unknown Intelligence, in which he propounded a philosophy of panpsychism.  He believed humans would eventually colonize the Milky Way galaxy. His thought preceded the Space Age by several decades, and some of what he foresaw in his imagination has come into being since his death. In a letter written in 1911 he indicated his belief that, “Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever.”
Tsiolkovsky did not believe in traditional religious cosmology, but instead, and to the chagrin of the Soviet authorities, he believed in a cosmic being that governed humans as "marionettes, mechanical puppets, machines, movie characters". He adhered to a mechanical view of the universe, which he believed would be controlled in the millennia to come through the power of human science and industry. In a short article in 1933, he explicitly formulated what was later to be known as the Fermi paradox.
He wrote a few works on ethics, espousing negative utilitarianism.

== Tributes ==