- Friedrich Zander (Russian: Фридрих Артурович Цандер, Latvian: Frīdrihs Canders; 23 August 1887 – 28 March 1933), often transliterated Fridrikh Arturovich Tsander, was a pioneer of rocketry and spaceflight in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. He designed the first liquid-fuelled rocket to be launched in the Soviet Union, GIRD-X, and made many important theoretical contributions to the road to space.
-Zander was born in Riga, Russian Empire, into a Baltic German family. His father Arthur Constantinovich was a doctor, but Friedrich was fascinated by other natural sciences besides medicine. In 1898, he was enrolled in the Riga urban technical high school, a seven year program in which he was a top student. During this time, he became acquainted with the work of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and space travel became his foremost scientific passion. While studying engineering at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, he carried out trajectory calculations for a flight to Mars. Mars held a special fascination to Zander, and "Forward to Mars!" (Вперед, на Марс!) became his famous motto.
Tsander´s college diploma, Riga Polytechnical Institute, 1914He graduated with his engineering degree in 1914, moved to Moscow in 1915. He worked at the "Provodnik" rubber plant, then in 1919 worked at Aircraft Factory No. 4 ("Motor"). In 1923, he was married to A.F. Milyukova, and they had a daughter named Astra and a son named Mercury. Mercury died of scarlet fever in 1929. After several years of unemployment and intensive research on rocketry and space travel, in 1926, Tsander began work at the Central Design Bureau of Aviation, and in 1930 worked at the Central Institute of Aviation Motor Construction (TsIAM)
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