We continue to publish materials on the development of domestic astronautics. Today our story is dedicated to Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Thanks to his talent as a scientist and the character of a commander, world science and technology were enriched with many wonderful discoveries, and a huge contribution was made to space exploration.
Childhood and adolescence
In the Ukrainian town of Zhitomir, a son was born in the family of engineer Pavel Yakovlevich Korolev in 1907. But soon after Seryozha’s birth, the family broke up, and his mother gave her little son to the care of her parents in Nizhyn. Here A five-year-old boy saw an airplane fly for the first time. The turns of a huge, man-made bird, controlled by man, captured his imagination.
Soon Sergei, his mother and stepfather settled in Odessa. Teenager spent hours watching seaplanes fly over the sea, cherishing the dream of flying. The pilots noticed an inquisitive, smart boy and soon he became a reliable assistant to the mechanic of the hydraulic squad. And finally the day came when he was allowed to take off in a seaplane. The impressions of the flight only strengthened his desire to connect his life with aeronautics.
Seryozha studied at home under the guidance of his stepfather and mother, I read a lot about aviation. He entered school only at the age of 15. He studied with pleasure, impressing his teachers with his excellent memory and clear thinking. Already at this age he was distinguished by his organization, combining study, work, sport sections and even music. His every day was planned down to the minute, but when a gliding circle opened in the city, the young man became an active participant. And a year later he presented his first project of a non-motorized aircraft.
Birth of a dream
In the 1930s, interest in extra-atmospheric flights and space in general appeared in Russia. A society of interplanetary flight enthusiasts organized in Moscow. He becomes an honorary member of society. His idea of making extra-stratospheric flights on jet vehicles was fueled by science fiction novels, giving rise to new bold ideas and projects.
In 1930, a meeting between Sergei Korolev and K. E. Tsiolkovsky took place. The conversation between these two people predetermined not only the fate of the future general designer, but also the entire space industry. Parting with Tsiolkovsky, he was already firmly convinced - from now on, the meaning of his life will be the creation of rockets and flight to other celestial bodies. The young man was especially attracted by the Red Planet - Mars. Since then, he has subordinated his every step to the fulfillment of this dream.
At the Moscow Institute, where Sergei studied, lectures on aircraft engineering were given by the famous aircraft designer Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev. He noticed a talented student and took him for an internship at his design bureau, becoming the head of his graduation project. Their friendship and cooperation continued for many years.
First rocket
In the newly created GIRD group during these years, which united rocketry enthusiasts, Sergei headed the technical council. Here On his life's path he meets a true like-minded person - F.A. Zander. For a whole year, their youth team worked for free, devoting all their time and energy to the new business. Two years later, the first liquid Soviet rocket took off into the sky. In 18 seconds, it moved 400m away from its home planet. And let her life path was short-lived. But it was a success! This means they are on the right track.
Arrest and work in closed design bureaus
The year 1933 brought good news to the Girdovites - the Jet Research Institute was created. The work on creating rockets has entered a qualitatively new level.
But wave of repression, which swept across the country in 1937, overwhelmed many prominent specialists in the aviation industry. In 1938, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was also arrested. Many hours interrogations and unbearable living conditions did not break him. On the wall of Butyrka prison he left calculations for his first radio-controlled rocket.
After 2 years, Korolev ends up in a new place of detention - a Moscow special prison, where works together with Tupolev in the prison design bureau on the design of new bombers and guided aerial torpedoes. “Zeks” are first-class engineers and designers who worked with great dedication on defense orders.
A year before the end of the war, Korolev is released. And already in 1945 he was appointed chief technical director of the research institute for the study of the German V-2 rocket.
Missiles are defense and science
For this purpose, Korolev and a group of Soviet specialists are sent to Germany. Where the British organized an exhibition of this the latest weapons Wehrmacht. Thorough Study V-2, it was necessary to build its complete analogue, but from domestic materials. The task was completed.
The Soviet equivalent of the missile was known as the R-1. But Korolev’s design ideas work tirelessly. With his enthusiasm and efficiency, he infects the entire team working on the order. Sergey Pavlovich is designing a missile capable of hitting targets at a distance of 600 km.
The arms race that unfolded against the backdrop of the Cold War showed the need to create intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear charge. Korolev brilliantly solves this problem. Thanks to his scientific genius the military industry was equipped with medium- and intercontinental-range missiles. They became the basis of the USSR's nuclear missile shield. It was followed by more advanced models with a flight range of up to 3000 km.
Space Assault
Working on orders from the War Ministry, Sergei Pavlovich never never parted with the dream of human space flight. In parallel with his work in the defense industry, he uses the vertical launch of R-1 and R-5 rockets to study near space and the influence of various cosmic factors on highly developed animals. The means of their life support and return to earth were worked out very carefully. Thus he laid the foundation for human space flight.
The space age of mankind dates back to October 4, 1957. It was on this day that he began his journey around his home planet. For two weeks, radio amateurs around the world listened with bated breath to his call signs.
In two years The first rocket launches towards the Moon, the next one delivers a pennant with the coat of arms of the USSR to its surface, photographs the side of our satellite invisible from Earth and transmits the pictures to Earth.
And on April 12, 1961, the whole world rejoiced when it learned about the fantastic news -. The first spaceship made only one revolution, because no one imagined how weightlessness and psychological stress would affect a person. This was followed by longer flights with various tasks and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov going into outer space.
Sergei Pavlovich is very treated the astronauts with care, often talked with them, highly appreciated their courage and dedication to the profession.
Under the leadership of Korolev, projects for interplanetary stations and satellites were developed for various purposes, new spaceships. The pinnacle of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev’s design thought was the flight of ships to Mars and Venus, the creation of the Molniya-1 communications satellite.
So this outstanding designer, an excellent organizer, step by step, realized his youthful dream - an assault on space.
Invisible Man
He passed away the day before his 59th birthday in 1966. And only then did the country and the whole world learn the name and surname of the person whom the press, radio and television were simply called General Designer. The secrecy regime has been lifted.
During his lifetime, Academician Korolev was awarded two orders of Hero of Socialist Labor. Recognition of his enormous services to humanity were monuments erected in his homeland, in the Moscow region, where the great designer built ships and at the cosmodrome, where the road to the Universe began.
History does not know a person who loved the sky more intensely and devotedly.
If this message was useful to you, I would be glad to see you
Date of birth: January 12, 1907
Date of death: January 14, 1966
Place of birth: Ukraine, Zhitomir
Korolev Sergey Pavlovich– designer of the Soviet period, Korolev S.P.- stood at the origins of theoretical and practical shipbuilding. Space technology, missile weapons - in these areas he was undoubtedly the first figure of his time.
Sergei was born on January 12, 1907 in Zhitomir in a bourgeois family. His father, Pavel Yakovlevich, taught Russian literature to children. Mother Maria Moskalenko, according to the traditions of that time, ran the household.
At the age of 8, Sergei begins his studies at the Kyiv gymnasium. In 1917 he was transferred to the Odessa gymnasium. Due to the closure of the gymnasium, the boy has to transfer to a labor school. Then he leaves school completely and begins studying at home under the guidance of his stepfather and mother. His stepfather's engineering education greatly helped Korolev.
A fateful meeting with aviators takes place in 1921. Sergei begins to communicate with representatives of the Odessa hydraulic squad and understands that aircraft manufacturing will become his life’s work.
Very at a young age– 17 years old – he was able to justify his own project of a motorless aircraft before a special commission.
6 years later, Sergei is already a student at the Polytechnic Institute in Kyiv. The young man literally grasps the exact disciplines on the fly and two years later he continues his studies in the capital. Moscow higher military school added another gifted student.
In 1931, having collaborated with F. Zander, Sergei created a special group dedicated to studying jet propulsion. In practice, young scientists created and tested their models.
In 1933, the young specialist became deputy head of the Jet Research Institute. He is in charge of the missile department. The department's goal is to test all types of weapons-related missiles.
In June 1938, the scientist was charged seriously. He was arrested for sabotage. Korolev's interrogations were carried out with particular cruelty. The court sentence imposed 10 years of labor camps in Kolyma. The inventor spent a year in prison, since the USSR needed to build up military power and the government desperately needed designers and scientists.
In connection with this, many scientists were collected into specially organized design bureaus for forced work. Korolev was no exception.
He began his work under the patronage of Tupolev in Moscow. Then he was transported to Kazan, where he became the chief in the field of design rocket launchers.
In 1944, the scientist received his freedom and began work on rockets designed to fly along a ballistic trajectory. The first creation was the R-1, but it was not its own design, but was made according to the drawings of the German V-2.
Subsequently, work begins on rockets strategic purpose. In the post-war years, in 1957, missiles designed to fly along a ballistic trajectory for water and land were demonstrated for the first time.
At the same time, research is being carried out in astronautics. The launch of an artificial Earth satellite, which was launched into Earth orbit for the first time, could not have happened without Korolev. The development of astronautics is proceeding by leaps and bounds and two years later three aircraft are already visiting the Moon.
Despite the successes in peaceful space exploration, Korolev and his colleagues do not give up their work war machine THE USSR. The R-7 rocket is his brainchild. This missile could reach another continent and hit a target there.
But the peak of the career of a designer and scientist was probably the first manned flight into space. It was Korolev who was both the ideological inspirer and the executor of this gigantic project. Following the flight of Yu. Gagarin, Vostok-2 and Soyuz went into orbit. Began preparatory work for the design and assembly of a heavy interplanetary spacecraft.
Korolev did not have time to complete all these projects. During intestinal surgery, his heart stopped permanently. This happened on January 14, 1966.
Achievements of Sergei Korolev:
He was the first scientist in Soviet Russia who was engaged in theory and practice in almost all areas of rocket technology for peaceful and military purposes.
Before him, no one had done so much in the field of manned spacecraft designed to be launched into space.
During the beginning of the “arms race,” he stood at the origins of the USSR’s nuclear defense.
The most eminent and fruitful scientist in theoretical and practical astronautics.
The scientist’s merits were awarded the Lenin Prize, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor twice, and the title of Academician of Sciences.
Dates from the biography of Sergei Korolev:
January 12, 1907 born in Zhitomir.
1915 began his studies at the Kyiv gymnasium
1917 transferred to the Odessa gymnasium
1924 began his studies at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute.
1926 transferred to Moscow VTU.
1931 initiator of the creation of GIRD.
The 1933 rocket launch confirmed the correctness of all the theoretical calculations of the group of scientists. Experimental work has begun to create a combat weapon missile weapons
1938 suddenly arrested. The punishment was severe - the designer had to spend 10 years in a camp.
1939 sent to a labor camp in Siberia.
1940 forced to work in specially organized design bureaus.
1944 released without preconditions. Started working on missiles flying along a ballistic trajectory.
1957 created a rocket flying along a ballistic trajectory. The Earth satellite, controlled from the control center, was sent into flight.
1961 Vostok-1 was sent into orbit.
January 14, 1966 - Sergei Pavlovich’s heart stopped during intestinal surgery.
Interesting Facts Sergei Korolev:
To get the drawings and calculations for the V-2, he was sent to England. The spy project failed because the artillery captain allegedly had no military decorations.
While studying at school, he showed absolutely no talent. Didn't shine in any of the subjects.
A story well known among cosmonauts says that Gagarin and Komarov insisted on sending the scientist’s ashes to the Moon.
Korolev Sergey Pavlovich (1907-1966) – the largest Soviet design engineer in the field of space shipbuilding, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, scientist. He was engaged in practical astronautics, developed, tested and implemented rocket and space technology and rocket weapon in the USSR, was the initiator and leader of the launch of man into space and the first artificial Earth satellite. Hero of Socialist Labor (twice), Lenin Prize laureate.
Childhood
Seryozha was born on January 12, 1907 in Zhitomir (then the town belonged to Russian Empire, now it is Ukraine).
His father, Pavel Yakovlevich Korolev, born in 1877, was from Mogilev, taught Russian literature. He received his education at the Nizhyn Historical and Philological Institute, where he met his future wife.
Mother, Moskalenko Maria Nikolaevna, born in 1888, came from a merchant family in the city of Nezhin, Chernigov province, and was also involved in teaching.
Seryozha was about three years old when the Korolevs moved to Kyiv, but the parents’ life together did not work out, dad left the family. And then his mother sent him to Nezhin, where Moskalenko’s grandfather Nikolai Yakovlevich and grandmother Maria Matveevna took up raising the boy; they loved their grandson madly.
Seryozha was four years old when he first watched a man fly in an airplane. This happened in 1911 in Nezhin, when the Russian pilot Utochkin flew into the city. The boy was already impressionable growing up, and the pilot and the airplane shocked him even more.
When Sergei was eight years old, his mother remarried engineer Grigory Mikhailovich Balanin, took her son from his grandparents and took him to Kyiv. Here in 1915 the boy began studying at preparatory courses at the gymnasium.
Studies
In 1917, the family moved to their stepfather’s homeland in Odessa, where Seryozha began studying in the first grade of the gymnasium. Unfortunately, soon educational institution was closed, and little Korolev attended a unified labor school for about four months. He received further education at home, classes with the child were conducted by his mother and stepfather; Grigory Mikhailovich had not only an engineering education, but also a pedagogical one.
Among all subjects and sciences, Sergei gave preference to technical ones; he was especially interested in aviation technology. In 1921, a seaplane detachment was organized in Odessa. Korolev could watch them fly over the sea for hours. Then the boy had a goal - to fly in the sky on the same plane.
And then young Korolev accidentally met Vasily Dolganov, who worked as a mechanic in the hydraulic unit. The man tinkered with the engines, explained to the boy what was what, and he greedily hung on every word. Having quickly studied the theory, Sergei began to practice; all summer, from morning to evening, he spent in the hydraulic squad, helping the mechanics in the pre-flight preparation of aircraft. Soon, for all pilots and mechanics, Sergei became a trouble-free, indispensable assistant.
In 1922, Korolev entered a professional construction school, where he studied for two years, attending various courses and clubs. He especially often disappeared in the school carpentry workshop, where the children made various products and models from wood. This school gave him vast experience, which was useful to Korolev when he began to build not wooden, but real gliders. Sergei studied so diligently that one day his class teacher said to his mother: “Your guy has a king in his head.”
Aviation Society
In 1923, the Aviation and Aeronautics Society of Ukraine and Crimea (OAVUK) was created in Odessa. Sergei was one of the first to enroll in the society and the gliding circle created under it. By this time, Korolev had already managed to take off once in a seaplane with the ship’s commander, whom the mechanic Dolganov persuaded to take the young man with him.
Sergei devoted almost all his time to the OAVUK society. Very soon he became a lecturer on eliminating aviation illiteracy, sharing his knowledge of gliding and the history of aviation with workers. Moreover, he himself did not specifically study this anywhere, he learned everything from books. At the construction school he had a teacher, Gottlieb Karlovich Ave, who taught his lessons only in German. Sergei’s stepfather was also fluent in this language. So Korolev learned German perfectly and read books on aviation in this language.
However, after graduating from construction school, it was necessary to obtain a serious profession. His seniority started at age sixteen. For some time, Korolev worked as a carpenter, tiling roofs. He also had a chance to work in production behind a machine. He told his parents: “I will build... But only airplanes”. Mom was against this choice of her son, but Seryozha’s stepfather supported him. I must say that my stepson developed a wonderful relationship with Grigory Mikhailovich; he found support from him on any issue.
Institutes
At the age of seventeen, Sergei developed a project for the K-5 motorless aircraft. His invention was officially accepted by the competent commission and recommended for construction. Korolev decided to continue his studies in Moscow at the Air Force Academy. But they were accepted there only from the age of eighteen and after service in the Red Army. Since Sergei had neither one nor the other, he went to Kyiv, where he became a student at the Polytechnic Institute. He entered the Faculty of Aviation Engineering.
Study had to be combined with work to make ends meet. The guy got up at five in the morning, ran to the editorial office to get newspapers, and then delivered them on Solomenka, so he earned eight karbovanets. I had to do carpentry, start working as a roofer again, and earn extra money as a loader.
Nevertheless, Korolev still found time for the gliding circle existing at the institute. Here he worked enthusiastically and often stayed in the workshop all night, falling asleep in the morning on a pile of shavings. Quite quickly he became known as a jack of all trades; many of his designs participated in international competitions.
After two years of studying at the Kiev Institute, Korolev transferred to Moscow to the Bauman VTU, by which time his mother and stepfather had moved to the capital. Sergei began studying in a special evening group in aeromechanics, and at the same time continued to invent, build, and follow every new trend in aviation:
- 1926 - joined the student academic circle named after N.E. Zhukovsky, where lectures were given by scientists and famous engineers.
- 1927 - Korolev was enrolled in the Moscow Glider School, where he flew a lot, mastering new gliders. In the same year, he became acquainted with the works of Tsiolkovsky, after which he became interested in rockets and space flights.
- 1928 - began working at the aircraft plant in Fili.
- 1929 - graduate student Korolev practiced at the Tupolev Design Bureau and defended his diploma, in which he developed the SK-4 two-seat light aircraft. The meticulous and strict Tupolev supervised the graduation project and signed it the first time, which had never happened before. Later, according to the project, the SK-4 aircraft was built and tested.
Scientific activity and inventions
Certified specialist Korolev began his labor activity at the Menzhinsky Aviation Plant, in 1931 he moved to the Zhukovsky Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute.
In the fall of 1931, Korolev, together with the scientist and inventor F.A. Zander, created the GIRD (a group studying jet propulsion). Already in 1933, Sergei Pavlovich supervised the first launch of ballistic missiles using liquid and hybrid fuel.
At the end of 1933, he went to work at the RNII, holding the positions of chief engineer, deputy head of the institute, and also headed the cruise missile department.
In the summer of 1938, the scientist was arrested, the primary charge was that he was a member of a “Trotskyist organization.” He was sentenced to ten years in prison and sent to Kolyma. Then they handed down a new sentence “for sabotage in the region military equipment" But in 1944 the conviction was cleared, and he was completely rehabilitated only in 1957.
After the war, a research institute of the Ministry of Armaments was created in the Moscow region. He had a secret design bureau, headed by Korolev.
Already in 1948, the R-1 ballistic missile was tested, which was put into service in 1950. Next, he took up the development of various modifications of the R-1, and finished working on a single-stage ballistic missile medium range R-5 and its modification with a nuclear warhead R-5M. The next development was the single-stage liquid-propellant rocket R-11 and its marine version R-11 FM.
In 1956, Korolev was the leader of the creation of a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile R-7. Even before the R-7 test, Sergei Pavlovich proposed to the government an idea - to launch an artificial Earth satellite using a rocket.
The country's leadership approved the initiative, and on October 4, 1957, an artificial satellite was launched into low-Earth orbit - the first in human history. A tremendous success followed; the USSR overnight gained high prestige in the international arena. As Korolev himself later said: “The daring dream of mankind was embodied in a small satellite”.
Subsequently, under the leadership of Korolev, the following were created and launched into orbit:
- geophysical "Sputnik-3";
- paired Electron satellites, with the help of which the radiation belts of planet Earth were studied;
- three lunar automatic stations: “Luna-1” flew nearby, “Luna-2” delivered a USSR pennant to the Moon, “Luna-3” took a picture of the side of the Moon that is not visible from Earth.
And on April 12, 1961, the world community was again amazed by Korolev’s inventions: he designed the first manned spacecraft in history, Vostok-1, on which Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew. This is how humanity began to explore outer space. Less than six months later, German Titov carried out his second flight on the Vostok-2 spacecraft; he was in space for almost a whole day.
In August 1962, under the leadership of Korolev, two ships were launched jointly - Vostok-3 and Vostok-4. A year later, in the summer of 1963, during the joint launch of Vostok-5 and Vostok-6, the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, went into outer space.
In 1964, Korolev developed a more complex Voskhod ship, which could already have three people on board - a flight engineer, a commander and a doctor. In the spring of 1965, for the first time since Voskhod-2, a person entered outer space. Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov left the ship through the airlock chamber and remained outside it for 20 minutes.
Sergei Pavlovich began developing a more advanced Soyuz spacecraft, where cosmonauts could stay for a long time and conduct scientific research. But he did not live to see the launch of the Soyuz. He also did not have time to implement another of his plans - launching a man to the moon. The great designer and scientist died on January 14, 1966, he had sarcoma of the rectum. The urn with Korolev’s ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall.
Wives and children
Korolev met his first wife, Ksenia Vincentini, as a young man in Odessa. He sought her for seven years, and at the end of the summer of 1931 they got married. Ksenia Maximilianovna was a first-class surgeon. In 1935, they had a girl, Natasha, who followed in her mother’s footsteps, becoming a professor, doctor of medical sciences and State Prize laureate.
Unfortunately, Sergei Pavlovich, who dreamed of his beloved Ksenia for so long, lost interest in his wife after several years together, and other women appeared in his life. When her daughter Natasha was 12 years old, she learned from her mother about her father’s infidelities, tore up all his photographs and crossed them out of her life. This crack remained forever; Korolev met with his daughter very rarely and was not even invited to her wedding.
In the spring of 1947, he met his second wife, Nina Ivanovna, who worked as a translator at his research institute. They lived together for almost twenty years, until his death.
In August 1924, Sergei Korolev entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute at the aviation department of the mechanical faculty. In parallel with his studies, he was involved in a gliding club, where he designed several aircraft. He was especially fascinated by the principles of jet propulsion and the prospects of flights into the stratosphere.
During these same years, Korolev worked as a newspaper delivery boy, participated as an extra in filming, and repaired roofs (he mastered the craft of a tile tile worker while still in construction school).
In 1926, to continue his studies, Sergei Korolev transferred to the third year of the aeromechanical department of the mechanical faculty of the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU, now Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman).
In March 1927, he graduated from the gliding school at the Moscow Higher Technical School, receiving the title of glider pilot. Sergei Korolev also studied in the aerodynamic club named after. N. E. Zhukovsky, where he developed original gliders and light aircraft. In 1929, he designed and built the Koktebel glider (together with Sergei Lyushin) and on October 15, 1929 he flew it at the VI All-Union Glider Competition in Koktebel. In November of the same year, he received a soaring pilot certificate, and in June 1930 he graduated from the Moscow Osoaviakhim Pilot School, receiving the qualification of a pilot.
Since his fourth year at the institute, Sergei Korolev has been combining study with work. From May to November 1927, he worked in the design bureau of the State Aviation Plant No. 22 named after the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, and then in the experimental department of aircraft designer Dmitry Grigorovich at Plant No. 22. From October 1928, he served as head of the center section design team of this department; in March 1929 he was transferred to the experimental department at plant No. 28, where he participated in the development of the T0M-1 torpedo bomber under the leadership of Paul Aimé Richard.
In December 1929, Korolev defended his graduation project light aircraft SK‑4 (headed by Andrei Tupolev), and in February 1930 received a certificate of graduation from the Moscow Higher Technical School and qualification as an “aeromechanical engineer”.
After graduating from Moscow Higher Technical School, he worked as the head of a motor equipment team at the central design bureau (TsKB) at aircraft plant No. 39.
In March 1931, Korolev began working as a senior flight test engineer at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), where he flew with Mikhail Gromov, working, in particular, on developing the first domestic autopilot.
In September 1931, Sergei Korolev took part in the organization of the Moscow Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion (GIRD) at Osoaviakhim of the USSR, headed by Friedrich Zander, and in May 1932, while remaining full-time employee TsAGI, became its head. In August 1933, in Nakhabino near Moscow, he supervised the first flight test in the USSR of a rocket with a hybrid fuel engine, the GIRD R-1, and on November 25, a rocket with a liquid fuel, the GIRD-X. The result of his activities in the GIRD was the badge “For active defense work” awarded in December 1933 - the highest award of Osoaviakhim of the USSR.
In 1933-1938, Sergei Korolev worked at the Jet Research Institute of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry (since 1937 - Research Institute-3 of the People's Commissariat of Defense Industry): deputy head of the institute, senior engineer of the cruise missile sector, head of the sector, head of the department, head of the group, senior group engineer. During this period, he developed a number of aircraft designs, including designs for a guided cruise missile (flying in 1939).
In 1938, on false charges, Sergei Korolev was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served his sentence in Kolyma. In September 1940, Korolev, thanks to the petition of Andrei Tupolev, was transferred to the Special Technical Bureau under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (TsKB-29). While in prison, he worked as an aeromechanical engineer at the Tupolev design bureau (KB), which was developing the Tu-2 dive bomber project.
In July 1941, together with TsKB-29, he was evacuated to Omsk, where until November 1942 he worked as a design bureau technologist and assistant to the head of the assembly shop at aircraft plant No. 166 (now Polet).
In November 1942, Korolev was transferred to Kazan to aircraft engine plant No. 16, where in the experimental design bureau of the special department of the NKVD under the leadership of Valentin Glushko he worked as a leading engineer - chief designer of a group of rocket launchers, dealing with the problem of equipping serial combat aircraft with liquid rocket boosters.
On July 27, 1944, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the early release of Sergei Korolev with his criminal record expunged.
From September 1945 to January 1947, Korolev was part of a group of Soviet specialists in Germany, where he studied German captured rocket technology. He first worked at the Rabe Special Institute in Bleicherode as the head of the Vystrel group, and later as the first deputy head, chief engineer of the Nordhausen Institute.
In August 1946, Korolev was appointed chief designer of the first Soviet ballistic missile. long range(BRDD), as well as the head of the department of the special design bureau of Research Institute No. 88 of the USSR Ministry of Armament (Kaliningrad, Moscow Region, now the city of Korolev). In 1947, he provided technical supervision of the first launch of a captured A-4 rocket at the Kapustin Yar test site. In 1948, the first launch of the R-1 BRDD was carried out.
In May 1950, after the reorganization of NII-88, Sergei Korolev was appointed head and chief designer of the experimental design bureau (OKB), and in September 1951 he was additionally given the responsibility of deputy director of NII-88.
From the end of 1947 to 1952, he was a part-time teacher at the Department of Jet Weapons at the Moscow Higher Technical School.
In 1956-1966 - chief and chief designer OKB-1, separated from NII-88 into an independent enterprise (now Rocket and Space Corporation Energia named after S.P. Korolev).
Under the direct leadership of Sergei Korolev, the creation of the country's nuclear missile shield was ensured (the development and commissioning of the first domestic long-range missiles using high-boiling, low-boiling and solid fuel components), space exploration began (the first high-altitude geophysical rockets, the first artificial Earth satellite, the first human space flight - Yuri Gagarin, the first scientific satellites "Electron", automatic stations to the Moon, Mars, Venus, the first domestic communications satellite "Molniya-1", photo observation satellite "Zenith"). Work was carried out on the Vostok and Voskhod manned spacecraft programs, work began on manned lunar programs, and design and research work was carried out on manned complexes for flights to planets solar system and other projects.
As the initiator of the creation and chairman of the Council of Chief Designers, in 1945-1965 Korolev provided technical leadership and coordination of the work of the country's enterprises and organizations on rocket, rocket-space and space projects developed under the leading role of the enterprise he led.
Sergei Korolev was a Doctor of Technical Sciences, a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1958), a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1960-1966), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1961), laureate of the Lenin Prize (1957), and was awarded two Orders of Lenin (1956 , 1961), Order of the Badge of Honor (1945), medals.
Korolev was married twice. First wife (1931-1948) - Ksenia Vincentini. In 1935, their daughter Natalya was born, but this marriage broke up. Second wife (1949-1966) - Nina Kotenkova.
Sergei Korolev died on January 14, 1966 (his heart stopped after surgical operation). An urn with his ashes is installed in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
In 1966, the USSR Academy of Sciences established a gold medal named after him “For outstanding work in the field of rocket and space technology.”
The name of Korolev is given to Samara National Research University, Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia, the Korolev science city in the Moscow region (renamed in 1996 from Kaliningrad), the central avenue of this city. Streets in many CIS cities are named after Academician Korolev. Two research vessels, a crater on Mars, a crater on back side Moons, asteroid 1855, a high mountain peak in the Pamirs, a pass in the Tien Shan.
In Moscow, in the house where Korolev lived in 1959-1966, the Korolev Memorial House Museum was opened in 1975. There are memorial house-museums in Zhitomir and Baikonur.