Korolev, Sergei Pavlovich << kuh ruhl YAWF, sehr GAY pah VLAW vihch >> (1907-1966), a Russian engineer, is widely considered to be the founder of the Soviet space program. Korolev led a team of engineers that developed rockets and used them to launch artificial satellites and piloted spacecraft. To maintain secrecy, the Soviet government did not reveal Korolev’s identity during his life, publicly referring to him only as Chief Designer.
Korolev was born on Jan. 12, 1907 (Dec. 30, 1906, on the old Russian calendar), in Zhytomyr, now part of Ukraine. He studied at Kiev Polytechnic Institute (now National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”) from 1924 to 1926 and at N. E. Bauman Moscow Higher Polytechnic School (now N. E. Bauman Moscow State Technical University), graduating in 1930. In 1931, he formed an organization of rocket pioneers later placed under military control. In 1938, Soviet officials jailed Korolev as part of a series of purges (campaigns of imprisonment and execution) conducted by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. During World War II (1939-1945), Korolev was transferred from a Siberian prison camp to Moscow, where he developed rockets for missiles and airplanes.
After the war, Korolev worked to improve the design of German V-2 rockets. The Soviet government appointed him to head an engineering team to develop rockets for missiles. But Korolev wanted to use the rockets for space exploration. On Oct. 4, 1957, his team launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. On April 12, 1961, his group launched the first person into space—cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin. Korolev also directed the country’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to land the first person on the moon. He died on Jan. 14, 1966.
