Russian pilot cosmonaut 1960-1968. First person in space. Due to his fame, the Soviet leadership did not want to risk him on another flight, but later relented. Died in a 1968 MiG trainer crash while requalifying for flight status. 1 spaceflight, 1.8 hours in space. Flew to orbit on Vostok 1 (1961).

Zucker, his backer, and selected press representatives met on a hilltop on Sussex Downs. After a first successful test launch without payload, two launches were made with postal covers. The observers guessed the rockets went as high as 400 to 800 m. Banner headlines the next day announced 'The First British Rocket Mail' and carried Zucker's claim that soon he would inaugrate regular one minute rocket post service between Dover and Calais.

His public doctoral thesis, "About Combustion Tests," was completed in very little time (one source states that he joined the SS at this time). The actual thesis was later revealed to be a classified Army document. This dissertation, "Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket", was dated 16 April 1934 but did not surface until 70 years later. It detailed the construction and design of the A2 rocket that would fly later that year.

Zucker announced a demonstration firing of his rocket over 1600 m of water between the town of Harris and the Isle of Scarp. Government officials watched as the rocket exploded, blowing the burning payload of postal covers all over the beach. The British found Zucker to be a 'threat to the income of the post office and the security of the country'. He was deported to Germany, where he was immediately arrested by the Germans on suspicion of espionage or collaboration with Britain.

This funding would continue through 1941. The first test series was designated the A Series (A1-A14). The A series rockets used simple pressure feed, gyroscopic control by means of vanes, and parachute. The rockets in this series averaged in length from 13 ft 6 in. to 15 ft 3 1/4 in.; their weight empty varied from 58 lb to 85 lb.

Von Braun's German Ordnance group launches A-2 'Max' from the Island of Borkum in the North Sea before the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army. The rocket is at an altitude of 1.7 km at burn-out, and reaches 2.2 km before falling back to impact 800 m from the launch point.

Von Braun's German Ordnance group launches the second of two A-2 rockets ('Moritz') successfully to a height of 3.5 km on the Island of Borkum in the North Sea. Burnout is at 1.8 km, and the rocket ascends more vertically than the test the previous day, reaching a greater altitude and impacting 500 m from the launch point.