Portrait of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), Russian physicist and visionary of space flight. Deaf from the age of nine, Tsiolkovsky was largely self-educated, even though isolated from the world of science. From his work on aerodynamics, he was drawn toward speculating about space flight. In 1896 he started to write Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices", in which he stated most of the principles of rocketry. He later designed liquid- fuel rocket motors, but never had the funds to make them. All through his later life he continued to publish speculative works, largely through the genre of science fiction."