Used with
permission of Maiken Naylor, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA,
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/exhibits/stamps
K. E. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was a self-trained Russian scientist who was a pioneer of space flight and rocketry. His writings, about liquid fuel and multi-stage rockets and space travel, predated the work of the American rocket engineer Robert Goddard and laid the foundation for the Russian space program launched with Sputnik in 1957. His "rocket formula" of 1903 on the stamp describes the increase in a rocket's velocity: (u-u0)/v=ln(M0/M), where u,u0 and M,M0 are initial and final velocity and mass of the rocket, respectively, and v is the velocity of the exhaust gases. On the stamp, inside the outline of a space capsule suspended from two parachutes, we see a blazing multi-stage rocket over the curved earth and a much enlarged outline of central America featuring Nicaragua.