Portal:Space exploration/Biography/Week 13 2007
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. 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. Yangel narrowly avoided death during the development of the R-16 in the Nedelin catastrophe.