posted 04-08-2022 02:19 PM               

Space Cover 645: Great Ukrainians in early Soviet Space Program

This days when my thoughts are with Ukraine and especially my wife is originally from Kharkiv while I am from Moscow, I cannot avoid the topic of Soviet-Ukrainians who contributed to a Space Program at its first years. Of cause I will not post about everybody as it there were hundreds of scientists, dozens of cosmonauts and numerous organizations. I am also a fan of the modern time cachets (1990-2000s) that are mainly neglected by collectors nowadays.

So the first cover is dedicated to the 'father' of Soviet Space Program – Sergey Korolev, born in Zhitomir, north Ukraine, and I chose to put a very colorful cover with cachet and Cinderella postmarked in Koktebel, Crimea, on 100th anniversary. As we all know Korolev studied in Technical Institute of Kiev and took part in gliding competitions in Koktebel during 1920s, flying the gliders of his own design.

The second cover in devoted to Valentin Glushko, who was a 'king' of engines and took over the NPO Energia (OKB-1) after Korolev and Mishin. Glushko was born in Odessa and has been responsible for all major engine designs of the first Soviet rockets. Here is a cover commemorating his 100th anniversary with the Ukrainian issued stamp and postmarked in Odessa.

Yuri Kondratyuk, born in Poltava, was a mathematician and space flight theoretician who developed the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) concept later used for Moon flights. In 1941 Kondratyuk joined Red Army in its fight against Nazis and has been killed in 1942. The cover shows official Ukrainian issue and private cachet.

Georgy Langemak, military engineer who was born near Luhansk, and partnered Glushko during early stages of rocket engines development in 1930s. He was the designer of projectiles for BM-13 and BM-8, also widely known as Katyusha. Also Langemak was the author of the word Cosmonautics that he used following his correspondence with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Unfortunately Langemak has been arrested as a supporter of Tukhachevsky, and executed in 1938. Posthumously he has been awarded a title of Hero of the Socialist Labor (1991).

The last in my list but not the least is Pavlo Popovich, born in Uzyn. He was driving Vostok 4 spacecraft partnering with Andrian Nikolaev. The cover is actually the official Ukrainian FDC commemorating 50th anniversary of the first group spaceflight.