Spacecraft and Rocket Engineers

Pioneers who designed the vehicles and engines of spaceflight: Sergei Korolev, the secret chief designer of the Soviet space program, Valentin Glushko, its leading rocket engine designer, Wernher von Braun, who led development of the Saturn V, Maxime Faget, principal designer of the Mercury spacecraft, Qian Xuesen, founder of Chinese rocketry, Mary Golda Ross, an aerospace engineer at Lockheed's Skunk Works, and John Houbolt, the engineer who championed lunar orbit rendezvous within NASA against early resistance. Belongs here: a pioneer chiefly known for engineering a spacecraft, rocket or engine. Does not belong here: a pioneer chiefly known for a theory rather than a built vehicle, grouped under Space Science and Rocketry Theorists, or for directing a mission from the ground, grouped under Mission Control and Program Leadership.