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A Russian medical student, journalist, and
revolutionary who may have been the first person in history to propose using
rocket power as a means of transport in space. Kibalchich had attempted several
times to kill Czar Alexander II who, ironically, had tried to introduce reforms
in Russia during his reign. Along with his accomplices, Kibalchich finally
succeeded in assassinating the Czar on March 13, 1881, and was himself put to
death on April 3, at the age of 27. While in prison, awaiting execution,
Kibalchich wrote a remarkable paper illustrating the principle of space
propulsion. In it, he describes a means of propelling a platform by igniting
gunpowder cartridges in a rocket chamber. Changing the direction of the rocket’s
axis, he realized, would alter the vehicle’s flight path. In his notes, he
explains:
I am writing this project in prison, a few days
before my death. I believe in the practicability of my idea and this faith
supports me in my desperate plight.
He was a close
contemporary of two other rocket pioneers, his compatriot Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
and the German Hermann Ganswindt.
The great American rocketeer Robert Goddard was
born a year after Kibachich’s execution.
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