On Childhood Dreams

Today is April 12th — Cosmonautics Day. May I share a very personal story?

For as long as I can remember, nothing has pulled at me, intrigued me and thrilled me quite like space travel. While I was still very small — probably around seven to nine years old — I think I read every book on cosmonautics you could possibly find in the USSR. My personal hero, like for so many kids, was Sergei Korolyov, the chief designer of the Soviet space program. I knew everything about him.

And my obsession didn’t stop at reading. I loved making things with my hands, so naturally I started building… miniature rockets.

I no longer remember exactly how the design came to me. The body and fuel tank were a metal toothpaste tube. The nozzle was the opening where the paste came out. For fuel, I used the half-burnt remains of fireworks that I’d collect off the ground during the holidays. While the other kids looked up at the sky, I was running around with my eyes down, “scanning” the asphalt for fallen scraps of spent firework. I’d grind those scraps up and pack them into the tube. Sulfur scraped off a matchbox served as the igniter.

The launches were spectacular! When they failed, the rockets would explode into huge fireballs, like ball lightning. I even scorched the kitchen stove at home, experimenting with my “fuel.”

For the launches I used a steel rod as a mini-cosmodrome. Guide rings on either side of the rocket kept the liftoff stable and vertical.

But my greatest achievement was the upper stage. I built a separating stage that held a plastic orange Kinder Surprise egg, fitted with batteries and a little bulb, where a… cosmonaut spider “lived.” When the rocket reached the top of its arc and the upward momentum ran out — it flew so high I’d already lost sight of it — the stage separated, and the spider landed safely under a parachute that unfolded from behind the nose cone. That was probably one of the happiest days of my whole childhood.

Space still inspires me, and I believe that exploring it is a force capable of uniting humanity. If only we could pour our energy not into our internal quarrels but into the conquest of the universe — what harmony we could live in! These days I’m an investor in a couple of startups working on near-Earth orbit.

What did you dream about as a child? How could you become a part of those childhood dreams now? Would it make you just a little happier?

Happy Cosmonautics Day, everyone! 🚀