Sergei Korolev
1907 – 1966 Soviet rocket engineer, spacecraft designer
The secret Chief Designer of the Soviet space program, whose name was hidden while he launched Sputnik and Gagarin, the Soviet counterpart to von Braun.
- Religion
- Secular; a survivor of Stalin's Gulag.
- Affiliations
- The Soviet space program, as its anonymous 'Chief Designer'.
Sergei Korolev survived imprisonment in Stalin's Gulag to become the Chief Designer of the Soviet space program, though his identity was kept a state secret while he lived. He built the R-7 rocket, launched Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin, and led the early Soviet lead in the space race. His death in 1966 helped doom the Soviet effort to reach the Moon.
Connections
- mentor of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky — His writings inspired Korolev and the Soviet rocket program.
- associate of Valentina Tereshkova — The chief designer whose program selected and trained her.