Yangel was the grandson of a Russian political prisoner who had been deported to Siberia by the Tsarist regime.

He worked with famous aircraft designers Nikolai Polikarpov and later, Artem Mikoyan.

As Sergei Korolev’s associate, he set up a rocket propulsion centre in Dnepropetrovsk in UkSSR which later formed the basis of his own OKB-586 design bureau in 1954.

His bureau designed the R-12, R-16 and R-36, whose launch vehicle adaptations are known as Kosmos, Tsyklon and Dnepr respectively.

Yangel's bureau was part of the Ministry of General Machine Building headed by Sergey Afanasyev.