College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Visions of flight

History's James Andrews' latest book focuses on the "grandfather" of the Russian space program.
Robert Goddard. Werner von Braun. John Glenn.

All names that Americans associate with space travel. The literature available on these pioneers and other lesser known advocates of space travel is seemingly endless.

James Andrews, associate professor of history and director of the Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies program, says three individuals are generally considered "fathers" of space travel.

Goddard we've mentioned. Germany's Herman Oberth is not as famous as Goddard but numerous books have been written on this Rumanian born mathematician.

Then there is Konstantin Tsiolkovskii of the former Soviet Union.

"No one has ever tackled writing a biography of Tsiolkovskii in English," Andrews says.

That is until now. Andrews' latest book, Visions of Space Flight: K.E. Tsiolkovskii, Russian Popular Culture, and the Roots of Soviet Cosmonautics 1857-1957, is forthcoming from Texas University Press. The book is included in Texas University Press' Centennial of Air Flight series.

Tsiolkovskii (1857-1935) can be described as the "grandfather" of the Russian space program, the man who first conceived multi-stage rockets that were later adapted for the U.S. and Soviet space programs.

"Stalin took Tsiolkovskii from a local provincial setting and made him a national hero after allowing him to speak to the Soviet nation from Red Square on May Day 1935," Andrews said. "That's why I think his story is so interesting and appealing."

But there is more to Tsiolkovskii's story. Andrews says the Russian scientist and physics teacher was also involved in the popular culture of the day - writing science fiction literature that included futuristic drawings of space stations.

"He was somewhat of an eclectic renaissance man," Andrews said. "The Stalinist regime used him to promote their views of Soviet science and technology. But he used the Soviet state to promote his own ideas. He was a science popularizer, novelist, technical inventor and ultimately a visionary."

And even though the book won't be published for at least another year, Andrews has received much advanced attention on the project. He spoke on Tsiolkovskii last fall in Germany and Amsterdam, and will present the book at a workshop in 2006 at the University of Melbourne Russian Studies Center in Australia.

Visions of Space Flight is based on extensive archival research that Andrews conducted in central and provincial Russian archives including a space museum in Tsiolkovskii's home town and in the Communist Party's archives.

Andrews received access to these archives due in a large part because he has been affiliated as a senior research associate with the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of the History of Science and Technology in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

"The Central Committee's archives, as well as a host of Russian state and local collections, have been open for the last two decades for Russian scholars like myself," Andrews said. "I can't imagine approaching my various book projects without those archives. It has made a world of difference."

Andrews' first book, Science for the Masses: The Bolshevik State, Public Science, and the Popular Imagination in Soviet Russia, 1917-34, was published in 2003 by the Texas A&M University Press.

In this book, Andrews presents a comprehensive history of the early Bolshevik popularization of science in Russia and the former Soviet Union including the Stalinist years that relegated scientific knowledge to the background in favor of industrial production.

Science for the Masses has been universally received including a review by the Slavic Review that noted that Andrews' book "should be required reading for students of the revolutionary period."