Sergey Korolev

About Sergey Korolev
Sergey Korolev was one of the main Soviet space engineers, the founder of practical cosmonautics and rocket science. His name has entered the history of Russian and world cosmonautics as a person engaged in the development of the first rocket and space technology and is an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The first inventions
Since the fourth year, Sergey Korolev combined his studies with work in design bureaus. Since 1927, he participated in the All-Union competitions in Koktebel for four years.
In 1929 he presented his first glider there, the SK1 "Koktebel", on which he himself showed the longest flight duration — 4 hours. 19 min.
In 1929 Sergey Korolev visited K. E. Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga .
The meeting with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky played a decisive role in determining the life path of Sergei Korolev. The whole meaning of his life was one thing – to build airplanes and make his way to the stars.

Arrest
On June 27, 1938, Sergei Korolev was arrested. He was charged under the most serious political article — the 58th, on two counts: 58.7 - "Undermining state industry and 58.-11 — "Any kind of organizational activity aimed at the preparation or commission of crimes provided for in this chapter <...>".

Arrest
He was tortured and his jaw was broken. He was sentenced to 10 years, went through several prisons, and was released in July 1944 by Stalin's personal order.

First Satellite „Sputnik-1“
On October 4, 1957, the first satellite in the history of mankind was launched into near Earth orbit.
His flight was a stunning success and created a high international prestige for the Soviet Union.
"He was small, this very first artificial satellite of our old planet, but his ringing call signs spread across all continents and among all peoples as the embodiment of a daring dream of mankind," S.P. Korolev said later.

We are the first!
April 12, 1961 S. P. Korolev again amazes the world community.
Having created the first manned spacecraft "Vostok-1", he implements the world's first human flight — a citizen of the USSR Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin in near-Earth orbit.

Death
The death of Sergei Korolev (heart stopped after the surgical operation) was a real tragedy for both national and world cosmonautics, as a result of which the pace of development of all space programs gradually decreased. As the further development of cosmonautics has shown, no personality equal to him in scale has appeared either in Russia or in the USA. Neverless, scientific programs of space exploration and its habitation with the help of long-term orbital complexes continue today. All this is a convincing evidence of the historical significance and enduring value of Sergei Korolev's work.