Sergei Korolev

12 January 1907 – 14 January 1966

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907-1966) was a Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer widely regarded as the father of practical astronautics and the driving force behind the early Soviet space program. As the anonymous 'Chief Designer', he led the programs that launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, and Vostok 1, which carried Yuri Gagarin as the first human in space. His identity was kept secret by the Soviet state until after his death.

Comparing
Compare

Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Sergei Korolev.

Life events

Born in Zhytomyr, Russian Empire
12 January 1907

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was born in Zhytomyr, in present-day Ukraine.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Co-founded the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD)
1931

Korolev helped establish and lead the Soviet rocketry research group GIRD in Moscow.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Arrested during the Great Purge and sent to the Gulag
27 June 1938 – 1944

Korolev was arrested on fabricated charges, tortured, and imprisoned, spending time in a Kolyma labor camp before being moved to a sharashka.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Personal ✓
Appointed chief designer of Soviet long-range missiles
1946

After the war Korolev led development of Soviet ballistic missiles, studying captured German V-2 technology.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Developed the R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile
21 August 1957

Korolev's R-7 became the world's first ICBM and the basis for Soviet space launch vehicles.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite
4 October 1957

Under Korolev's direction the Soviet Union launched the first artificial Earth satellite, opening the space age.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Launched Vostok 1 with Yuri Gagarin, first human in space
12 April 1961

Korolev's Vostok spacecraft carried Yuri Gagarin on the first crewed spaceflight and orbit of the Earth.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Oversaw Voskhod and early lunar program work
1964

Korolev directed the Voskhod missions, which achieved the first multi-person crew and first spacewalk, and began work toward a Soviet crewed Moon program.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Died in Moscow
14 January 1966

Korolev died during surgery in Moscow; only after his death was his identity as the Chief Designer publicly revealed.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓