Soviet engineer and self-taught rocketry theorist, born Oleksandr Shargei in Poltava in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), who adopted the identity of a deceased man, Yuri Kondratyuk, around 1921 to evade Soviet authorities as a former Tsarist officer. Working independently of Western rocketry circles, he proposed a modular spacecraft design in which a propulsion section stays in orbit while a smaller lander travels to the surface and back, a strategy later called lunar orbit rendezvous and adopted by NASA's Apollo program engineers, including John Houbolt, to reach the Moon. The exact circumstances of his death during the Second World War remain unresolved: some accounts place it in October 1941, while evidence collected in the 1990s points to January or February 1942 near a village in the Kaluga region, and his remains were never definitively recovered.
Facts
NationalitySoviet (Ukrainian-born) 1 Defining ContributionIndependently proposed the lunar orbit rendezvous concept later adopted for the Apollo program's Moon landings. 1 Connections
Associated With
His lunar orbit rendezvous concept, published decades earlier, was the mission mode NASA engineers ultimately adopted for the Apollo Moon landings.
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
John Houbolt, Pioneers Houbolt championed the lunar orbit rendezvous concept within NASA in the early 1960s, the same mission mode Kondratyuk had proposed independently decades earlier.
Open Questions
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
In the Other Atlases
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Sources
1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia FoundationYuri Kondratyuk (Wikipedia) - lunar orbit rendezvous
a modular spacecraft to reach the Moon, leaving the propulsion section of the vehicle on orbit while a smaller lander journeyed to the surface and back (the strategy eventually adopted by the engineers of the Apollo program).
Yuri Kondratyuk (Wikipedia) - defining contribution
the strategy eventually adopted by the engineers of the Apollo program
Yuri Kondratyuk (Wikipedia) - nationality
Soviet engineer and mathematician, born in Poltava in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Yuri Kondratyuk (Wikipedia) - birth name
his stepmother obtained the documents of a certain Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk
Associated With: Apollo Program, Yuri Kondratyuk (Wikipedia) - Apollo adoption
the strategy eventually adopted by the engineers of the Apollo program
View the Source 2. Yuri Kondratyuk (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph
Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk (Russian: Юрий Васильевич Кондратюк; Ukrainian: Юрій Васильович Кондратюк), real name Aleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei (Russian: Александр Игнатьевич Шаргей; Ukrainian: Олександр Гнатович Шаргей; 21 June 1897, February 1942), was a Soviet engineer and mathematician.
Lead section
Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk (Russian: Юрий Васильевич Кондратюк; Ukrainian: Юрій Васильович Кондратюк), real name Aleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei (Russian: Александр Игнатьевич Шаргей; Ukrainian: Олександр Гнатович Шаргей; 21 June 1897 - February 1942), was a Soviet engineer and mathematician.
In Group: Russian and Soviet Rocketry Pioneers, Lead sentence
Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk (Russian: Юрий Васильевич Кондратюк; Ukrainian: Юрій Васильович Кондратюк), real name Aleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei (Russian: Александр Игнатьевич Шаргей; Ukrainian: Олександр Гнатович Шаргей; 21 June 1897, February 1942), was a Soviet engineer and mathematician.
View the SourceOpen Questions (1 open question)
How and when did Yuri Kondratyuk actually die during the Second World War?
Historical accounts disagree. His unit fought the Nazis in October 1941, and 3 October 1941 is sometimes given as his date of death, but evidence collected in the 1990s suggests he instead disappeared in January or February 1942 while repairing a communications cable near the village of Zasetsky in the Kaluga region. His remains were never definitively recovered or identified, so no single account has been confirmed.
What would resolve this Documentary or forensic confirmation of his unit's exact movements and casualties across late 1941 and early 1942, or recovery and identification of his remains.
Military history and archival researchYuri Kondratyuk (Wikipedia)
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