Yevgeny Ostashev
Yevgeny Ilyich Ostashev (; 22 March 1924 – 24 October 1960), was the test pilot of rocket and space complexes, participant in the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, head of the 1st control polygon NIIP-5 (Baikonur), Lenin prize winner, Candidate of Technical Sciences, engineer-podpolkovnik. Biography Born 22 March 1924 in the village Maly Vasilyev, Noginsky District, Moscow Oblast, USSR. In 1941, he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, but refused to evacuate to Alma-Ata with the rest of the institute's staff after the outbreak of war, deciding instead to work at a local factory until he was drafted into the Red Army in the summer of 1942. He was drafted into the army in the summer of 1942, became a cadet of the Leningrad artillery school. After six months of training in the rank of second lieutenant, he was sent to the Stalingrad front as a commander of a communications platoon in a mortar regiment. He fought as part of the unit which was part of the 1st Ukrainian front under the command of the Century V.I. Chuikov. The commander of the mortar platoon took part in the Korsun-Shevchenko operation, in the battles on the Dniester, near Vitebsk was