2-nd Baumanskaya, 5, 105005, Moscow, Russia, Moscow, Russia
Bauman Moscow State Technical University
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov, 1929
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov in his youth
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Prospekt Pobedy, 37, 03056, Kiev, Ukraine
The National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute"
Career
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Members of the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion. 1931. Left to right: standing I.P. Fortikov, Yu A Pobedonostsev, Zabotin; sitting: A. Levitsky, Nadezhda Sumarokova, Sergei Korolev, Boris Cheranovsky, Friedrich Zander
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov with Jet Propulsion Research Institute group
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
"Chief Designer" Korolyov (left) with "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" Igor Kurchatov (centre) and "Chief Theoretician" Mstislav Keldysh (right), 1956
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Korolyov with the first woman-cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Korolyov with Yuri Gagarin
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov shortly after his arrest, 1938
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov, 1940
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Korolyov and one of the space dog.
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Monument to Sergey Korolyov
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov on a 1969 Soviet stamp (10 kopeks)
Gallery of Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov (left) and Valentin Glushko on a 2007 Ukrainian stamp
Achievements
A Soviet space dog, Laika, who became one of the first animals in space, and the first animal to orbit the Earth.
Members of the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion. 1931. Left to right: standing I.P. Fortikov, Yu A Pobedonostsev, Zabotin; sitting: A. Levitsky, Nadezhda Sumarokova, Sergei Korolev, Boris Cheranovsky, Friedrich Zander
"Chief Designer" Korolyov (left) with "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" Igor Kurchatov (centre) and "Chief Theoretician" Mstislav Keldysh (right), 1956
Sergey Korolyov was a USSR mechanical engineer and spaceship designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He was instrumental in the development of the Soviet Intercontinental ballistic missile program and the Soviet space program.
Background
Ethnicity:
On his maternal side, he had Cossack, Greek and Polish ancestry.
Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov was born on January 12, 1907 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine (then a part of the Russian Empire). He was the son of Pavel Yakovlevich Korolyov, a teacher of the Russian language, and Maria Nikolaevna Korolyova (Moskalenko/Bulanina). Three years after Sergey’s birth his parents separated. Korolyov grew up in Nezhin, under the care of his maternal grandparents Mykola Yakovych Moskalenko, a trader of the Second Guild and Maria Matviivna Moskalenko (Fursa).
A year after the divorce, Sergey’s mother was married for the second time to Grigory Mikhailovich Balanin, an electrical engineer, who proved a good influence on his step-son. Grigory moved the family to Odessa in 1917.
Education
Korolyov received his vocational training at the Odessa Building Trades School, the Kiev Polytechnic Institute (nowadays National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute"), and the Moscow N.E. Bauman Higher Technical School (now Bauman Moscow State Technical University), where he studied aeronautical engineering under the celebrated designers Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky and Andrey Nikolayevich Tupolev.
Korolyov began his career at the 4th Experimental Section aircraft design bureau OPO-4, working on designing a glider capable of performing aerobatics at the same time. In 1930 worked as a lead engineer on the Tupolev TB-3 heavy bomber. The same year he earned his pilot’s license.
In 1931 Korolyov was one of the founders of the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD) and became its head in 1932. In 1933 the group launched the Soviet Union’s first liquid-propellant rocket. The same year GIRD merged with the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) at Leningrad, thus the Jet Propulsion Research Institute (RNII) appeared. Korolyov became the Deputy Chief of the institute, where he supervised development of cruise missiles and a manned rocket-powered glider. By 1936 he had already been chief engineer at RNII. The RNII team worked on stability and control of rocketry and developed automated gyroscope stabilization systems.
At the height of Stalin's purges, on June 22, 1938 Korolyov was arrested by NKVD and sent to concentration camps in Siberia, in the region of the Kolyma River. In March 1940 he was suddenly returned to Moscow and imprisoned in the Butyrskaya prison. Korolyov was sentenced to eight years in labor camps on phony allegations of sabotage. In September 1940, he was transferred to "sharashka" - penitentiary for intellectuals and the educated. Officially called TsKB-29, Korolyov's sharashka was led by Andrei Tupolev, also a GULAG prisoner and located in the city of Omsk. There, Korolyov participated in the development of the Tu-2 bomber, a major aircraft of the Soviet Air Force during World War II, and the Petlyakov Pe-2 dive bomber. Korolyov was then transferred to another sharashka in the city of Kazan, where he became a deputy to Valentin Glushko, his former colleague from NII-3 and future partner and competitor at the dawn of space age.
On June 27, 1944 Korolyov - along with Tupolev, Glushko and others – was finally discharged by special government decree, although the charges against him were not dropped until 1957.
Korolyov was commissioned into the Red Army with the rank of colonel in 1945. In 1946 he became Chief engineer of OKB-1 (nowadays S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia). He modified the German V-2 missile, increasing its range to about 685 km (426 miles). He also supervised the test firing of captured V-2 missiles at the Kapustin Yar proving ground in 1947.
In 1950 Korolyov was appointed Chief engineer of the USSR aerospace industry. In 1953 he began to develop the series of ballistic missiles that led to the Soviet Union’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. Following this, Sputnik 1 was launched on 4 October 1957 using the R-7 booster to propel it into space. On November 3, 1957 more sophisticated satellite, carrying the dog Laika on a board, was launched. The instrument-laden Sputnik 3 spacecraft was sent into orbit on 15 May 1958.
Korolyov then turned his attention to reaching the Moon. After a number of failed launches, Luna 2 successfully impacted the surface on September 14, 1959. On October 7, 1959 even greater success was achieved with Luna 3, the first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the Moon.
In 1958 Korolyov began designing of a manned spacecraft - the future Vostok spacecraft. A modified version of the R-7 was used to launch Yuri Alexeevich Gagarin into orbit on 12 April 1961. In the following years, Korolyov led the development of several generations of ballistic missiles, launch vehicles, science, military and communications satellites, interplanetary probes and manned spacecraft.
Korolyov did not join the Communist Party until after Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953 and soon won the support of communist leader and fellow Ukrainian Nikita Khrushchev, who saw the propaganda and military potential of a strong rocket program.
Views
Quotations:
"I've been waiting all my life for this day!" (Upon the launch of Sputnik.)
"The Soviet Union has become the seacoast of the universe." (After the launch of Sputnik.)
"The Americans have unified their forces into a single thrust, and make no secret of their plans to dominate outer space. But we keep our plans secret even to ourselves..."
Membership
In 1958 Korolyov was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Personality
Korolyov was a charismatic leader - a demanding, hard-working man, with a disciplinary style of management. He personally monitored all key stages of the programs and paid meticulous attention to detail.
Quotes from others about the person
Alexey Leonov: "Long before we met him, one man dominated much of our conversation in the early days of our training; Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, the mastermind behind the Soviet space program. He was only ever referred to by the initials of his first two names, SP, or by the mysterious title of "Chief Designer", or simply "Chief". For those on the space program there was no authority higher. Korolyov had the reputation of being a man of the highest integrity, but also of being extremely demanding. Everyone around him was on tenterhooks, afraid of making a wrong move and invoking his wrath. He was treated like a god."
Connections
Korolyov married Xenia Vincentini on August 6, 1931. On 10 April 1935, Korolyov's wife gave birth to their daughter, Natalya. About 1946, the marriage of Korolyov and Vincentini began to break up, leading to the divorce in 1948. He then married Nina Ivanovna Kotenkova, an English interpreter, in 1949.