Mikhail Yangel
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Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel (Михаил Кузьмич Янгель in Russian) (October 25 (November 7), 1911 - October 25, 1971, Moscow) was a leading missile designer in the Soviet Union.
His career started as an aviation engineer, after graduating from Moscow Aviation Institute in 1937. He worked with famous air craft designers Nikolai Polikarpov and later, Artem Mikoyan. Then he moved to the field of ballistic missiles, where he first was in charge of guidance systems. As Sergei Korolev’s associate, he set up a rocket propulsion center in Dniproperovsk in the Ukraine which later formed the basis of his own OKB-586 design bureau in 1954. At first, Yangel’s facility served to mass-produce and further develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in which area Yangel was a pioneer of storeable hypergolic fuels. His bureau designed the R-12, R-16 and R-36, whose launch vehicle adaptations are known as Cosmos,Tsyklon, Dnepr respectively are still in use today. Yangel narrowly avoided death during the development of the R-16 in the Nedelin catastrophe.
For his outstanding work, Mikhail Yangel was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1960 and USSR State Prize in 1967. He was also awarded four Orders of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, and numerous medals.
Several notable places were named after Yangel:
- A street in the Chertanovo neighborhood in Moscow
- A street in Kiev
- A Metro station Ulitsa Akademika Yangela on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line (near the above street)
- Yangel crater on the moon.
