Space Science and Rocketry Theorists

Pioneers whose contribution was theoretical or scientific rather than the hands-on design of a specific flown vehicle: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Hermann Oberth and Robert Goddard, the three men usually credited as the founding theorists of rocketry, Yuri Kondratyuk, who worked out the lunar orbit rendezvous technique decades before Apollo used it, Johannes Kepler, whose laws of planetary motion underpin all later orbital mechanics, and James Van Allen, the physicist who discovered the radiation belts that bear his name. Belongs here: a pioneer chiefly known for a theory, equation or scientific discovery. Does not belong here: a pioneer chiefly known for designing or building a specific spacecraft or engine, grouped under Spacecraft and Rocket Engineers.