A brief review of the life and creative heritage of A.A. Sternfeld (1905-1980), one of the Cosmonautics pioneers, is presented. There is analyzed A.A. Sternfeld’s contribution to theoretical and practical Cosmonautics. In particular, his activity in scientific popularization of the Cosmonautics ideas, and new “detour” space trajectories discovered by A.A. Sternfeld, as well as his classic monograph “Introduction to Cosmonautics” are considered. Connections of A.A. Sternfeld’s results with modern theory of space maneuvers as well as with some modern space projects are examined. Analysis of A.A. Sternfeld’s creative heritage leads to the conclusion that A. Sternfeld has brought to Cosmonautics a noticeable contribution by his scientific and science-popular activity; his ideas of “detour”, bi-elliptical flights well entered in both theory and practice of modern Cosmonautics.

Theoretical and applied problems of mechanics