In adolescence, he was attracted to astronautics. At the age of fifteen, he entered into correspondence with Tsiolkovsky. Then was the Leningrad University, the famous Gas-Dynamic Laboratory, an arrest, a typical thing for people of his generation, and a sharashka, a name given to the secret design bureaus employing arrested scientists. Today, Valentin Glushko is considered the greatest Soviet scientist in rocket and space equipment, the founder of the Soviet liquid rocket engine building, the chief designer of the Energia-Buran reusable launch vehicle. Glushko directed enhancements of the Soyuz manned spacecrafts, Progress cargo spacecraft, Salyut orbital stations and development of the base module for the Mir orbital station.