Sergei Pavlovich Korolev is considered the founder of practical astronautics.

In the 20th century, he was the man who determined the strategy and tactics of practical space exploration.

Created by him missile systems and spaceships that made Soviet Union pioneer in space exploration.

Biography, education

Sergei Korolev was born on January 12, 1907 in Zhitomir, which is 130 kilometers from the city. His parents were teachers. For several years he lived in Nizhyn with his grandparents. In first grade I went to a gymnasium in Odessa, which was soon closed. This was in the stormy year of 1917.

His mother and stepfather, who received an engineering degree in Germany, took care of his home education. In 1924, Sergei became a student at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, intending to be an aeronautical engineer. There he became interested in gliding.

Two years later, he continued his studies at the Moscow Higher Technical School named after N. E. Bauman (MVTU).

Through aviation to missiles

At the Moscow Higher Technical School he creates designs for original gliders and aircraft. He was actively involved in gliding and participated in gliding rallies in the Crimean Koktebel. He designed aircraft that received high marks from specialists. After meeting the great K.E. Tsiolkovsky devoted himself to rocket science.

In 1931, together with another enthusiast, F.A. Zander, he created a Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion on a voluntary basis. The following year it became a government agency for missile development. The results obtained interested the military, and in 1933 a special research institute for the development of missiles was created.

With the rank of divisional engineer, Sergei Pavlovich became deputy head of the institution, deputy head of the institute. Under his leadership, three years later, anti-aircraft and long-range cruise missiles were developed and tested. By 1938, projects appeared: cruise and ballistic missiles with liquid-propellant engines, missiles for aircraft, hitting targets in the air and on the ground, surface-to-air missiles using solid fuel.

A prisoner

However, a denunciation was written against him. An arrest followed in June 1938. Two months later, on charges of subversion, he was sentenced to ten years in prison and a five-year disqualification. Went through Butyrskaya and transit prisons, Kolyma. In the spring of 1940, he was unexpectedly transported to Moscow, where in the summer of that year he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

However, instead of the camp, they are sent to a special NKVD prison in Moscow called TsKB-29. Here he, under the leadership of also prisoner A.N. Tupolev participates in the creation of bombers and develops unique designs missile weapons. In 1942, he was transferred to the prison design bureau at the aircraft plant in Kazan, where he designed rocket boosters for aircraft and installations for launching missiles from a bomber.

In July 1944, he was released early and his criminal record was cleared. He was rehabilitated only in 1957 due to the lack of evidence of a crime.

Rocket shield constructor

Soon after the Great Patriotic War it was necessary to create long-range missiles capable of hitting targets thousands of kilometers away. In 1946 S.P. Korolev is appointed their general designer. Missiles of various modifications were developed, including those with a nuclear charge.

In 1956, an intercontinental ballistic missile was created, capable of delivering a charge, first 8, and a little later 11 thousand km. A year later, sea-based and mobile ground-based missiles appeared.

Path to space

Sergei Korolev led the development of satellites and space stations, more advanced rockets for launching them. The first result of this work was the launch in October 1957 of the first artificial satellite into low-Earth orbit. This fantastic success provided the USSR with enormous prestige in the world.

Work was carried out at an accelerated pace to create satellites for military, national economic and scientific purposes. Automatic stations to the Moon are launched, back side which is being photographed. The development of a device for landing on this satellite of the earth begins, which could photograph its surface and transmit images to Earth.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev amazes the world with the creation of the first manned spacecraft, which for the first time circled the globe in space. Then there were other flights of Soviet cosmonauts, including joint ones, the flight of a female cosmonaut, and a man’s spacewalk. He developed the idea of ​​​​creating a long-term orbital station in which one could work without spacesuits and change crews.

Unfortunately, he did not live to see the practical implementation of this project.

Confession. Memory

Sergei Korolev was awarded the country's highest awards, including twice receiving the star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. The USSR Academy of Sciences elected him as a full member. S.P. died Korolev on January 14, 1966 during an operation that his heart failed. Buried in the wall of the Moscow Kremlin.

His name is borne by:

• several space-related businesses;
• city ​​near Moscow - Korolev;
• several universities;
• streets in many localities;
• one of the highest peaks of the Pamirs;
• lunar and Martian craters;
• research ship;
• departmental medals and other awards.

Films were made and written about him literary works. Thousands of people visit memorial house museums in Moscow and Zhitomir.

• Name S.P. The Queen during his lifetime was a mystery. He was not mentioned either after the launch of the first satellite, or in connection with the first flight of an earthling into space;
• People who knew him closely recalled that he never cursed anyone and never complained. He looked gloomily at the future, was a skeptic and a cynic. He liked to say: “They’ll slam you without an obituary”;
• when he was transferred from Kolyma to Moscow, he was late for the ship, which sank during a storm on the way to Vladivostok;
• among the world's first launches was the flight of a satellite with a dog named Laika and the launch of a ballistic missile from under water;
• a year before his rehabilitation, Korolev in 1956 became a Hero of Socialist Labor for the creation of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Born December 30, 1906 (January 12, 1907) in Zhitomir - died January 14, 1966 in Moscow. Soviet scientist, designer, main organizer of the production of rocket and space technology and rocket weapons of the USSR, founder of practical cosmonautics.

Father - Pavel Yakovlevich Korolev (1877-1929), teacher of Russian literature, originally from Mogilev.

Mother - Maria Nikolaevna Moskalenko (by her second husband - Balanina) (1888-1980), daughter of a merchant from Nizhyn.

When Sergei Pavlovich was 3 years old, his mother left the family. He was sent to Nezhin to his grandmother Maria Matveevna and grandfather Nikolai Yakovlevich Moskalenko.

In 1915 he entered the preparatory classes of the gymnasium in Kyiv.

In 1917, he went to the first grade of a gymnasium in Odessa, where his mother, Maria Nikolaevna Balanina, and stepfather, Grigory Mikhailovich Balanin, moved.

I didn’t study at the gymnasium for long - it was closed. Then there were four months of unified labor school. Then he received his education at home - his mother and stepfather were teachers, and his stepfather, in addition to teaching, had an engineering education.

Even during his school years, Sergei was interested in the then new aviation technology, and showed exceptional abilities for it.

In 1922-1924 he studied at a construction vocational school, participating in many clubs and taking various courses.

In 1921, he met the pilots of the Odessa hydraulic squad and actively participated in aviation public life: from the age of 16 - as a lecturer on eliminating aviation illiteracy, and from the age of 17 - as the author of the project for the K-5 non-motorized aircraft, which was officially defended before the competent commission and recommended for construction.

Having entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute in 1924 with a specialization in aviation technology, Korolev mastered general engineering disciplines there in two years and became a glider athlete.

In the fall of 1926, he was transferred to the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU) named after N. E. Bauman.

During his studies at the Moscow Higher Technical School, S.P. Korolev already gained fame as a young, capable aircraft designer and an experienced glider pilot. On November 2, 1929, on the “Firebird” glider designed by M.K. Tikhonravov, Korolev passed the exams for the title of “glider pilot”, and in December of the same year, under the leadership of Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev, he defended thesis- project of the SK-4 aircraft.

The aircraft he designed and built - the Koktebel and Krasnaya Zvezda gliders and the SK-4 light aircraft, designed to achieve a record flight range - showed Korolev’s extraordinary abilities as an aircraft designer. Thus, the SK-3 “Red Star” glider, for the first time in the USSR, was specially designed for performing figures aerobatics and in particular, loop, which was successfully demonstrated by pilot V.A. Stepanchonok during the VII All-Union Glider Meeting in Koktebel on October 28, 1930. However, especially after meeting with K.E. Tsiolkovsky, Korolev was fascinated by thoughts about flights into the stratosphere and the principles of jet propulsion.

In September 1931, S.P. Korolev and a talented enthusiast in the field of rocket engines F.A. Tsander achieved the creation in Moscow, with the help of Osoaviakhim, of a public organization - the Jet Propulsion Research Group (GIRD). In April 1932, it became essentially a state research and design laboratory for the development of rocket aircraft, in which the first Soviet liquid-ballistic missiles (BR) GIRD-09 and GIRD-10 were created and launched.

In 1933, on the basis of the Moscow GIRD and the Leningrad Gas Dynamic Laboratory (GDL), the Jet Research Institute was created under the leadership of I. T. Kleimenov. Korolev was appointed his deputy with the rank of development engineer.

In 1935, he became head of the rocket aircraft department.

In 1936, he managed to bring cruise missiles to testing: anti-aircraft - 217 with a powder rocket engine and long-range - 212 with a liquid rocket engine.

In his department, by 1938, designs for liquid-fueled cruise and ballistic missiles had been developed long range, aircraft missiles for firing at air and ground targets and anti-aircraft solid-fuel missiles. However, differences in views on the prospects for the development of rocket technology forced Korolev to leave the post of deputy director, and he was appointed to the ordinary position of senior engineer.

Arrest and imprisonment of Sergei Korolev

Sergei Korolev was arrested on June 27, 1938 on charges of sabotage, after the arrest of Ivan Terentyevich Kleimenov and other employees of the Jet Institute. According to some reports, he was tortured - both jaws were broken. The author of this version is journalist Ya. Golovanov. In his book, he emphasizes that this is only a version: “In February 1988, I talked with corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences S.N. Efuni. Sergei Naumovich told me about the 1966 operation, during which Sergei Pavlovich died. Efuni himself took part in it only at a certain stage, but, being at that time the leading anesthesiologist of the 4th Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health, he knew all the details of this tragic event.

“Anesthesiologist Yuri Ilyich Savinov encountered an unforeseen circumstance,” said Sergei Naumovich. - In order to give anesthesia, it was necessary to insert a tube, but Korolev could not open his mouth wide. He had fractures of two jaws... - Were Sergei Pavlovich’s jaws broken? - I asked Korolev’s wife, Nina Ivanovna.

“He never mentioned it,” she answered thoughtfully. “He really couldn’t open his mouth wide, and I remember that when he had to go to the dentist, he was always nervous...

Korolev writes clearly: “investigators Shestakov and Bykov subjected me to physical repression and abuse.” But I cannot prove that Nikolai Mikhailovich Shestakov broke the jaws of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Unfortunately, no one can prove this anymore. You can't even prove that you hit him. That he just pushed. I repeat again: I cannot prove anything, there is no such evidence in nature. I can only try to see. There is no other evidence confirming that Korolev’s jaw was broken during interrogations.”.

On September 25, 1938, Korolev was included in the list of persons subject to trial by the Military Collegium Supreme Court THE USSR. On the list he was in the first (execution) category. The list was endorsed by Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov and Kaganovich.

Korolev was convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on September 27, 1938, charge: Art. 58-7, 11. Sentence: 10 years of labor camp, 5 years of disqualification. On June 10, 1940, the term was reduced to 8 years in the ITL (Sevzheldorlag), released in 1944. According to his application to the Military Prosecutor's Office dated May 30, 1955, he was rehabilitated “for lack of evidence of a crime” on April 18, 1957.

Sergei Korolev went through Butyrka in Moscow and a transit prison in Novocherkassk.

On April 21, 1939, he arrived in Kolyma, where he was located at the Maldyak gold mine of the Western Mining Administration and was engaged in so-called “general work.” On December 23, 1939, he was sent to the disposal of Vladlag.

He arrived in Moscow on March 2, 1940, where four months later he was tried a second time by a Special Meeting, sentenced to 8 years in prison and sent to the Moscow NKVD special prison TsKB-29, where, under the leadership of A. N. Tupolev, also a prisoner, he took an active part in the creation Pe-2 and Tu-2 bombers and at the same time proactively developed projects for a guided aerial torpedo and a new version of a missile interceptor.

This was the reason for the transfer of S.P. Korolev in 1942 to another prison-type design bureau - OKB-16 at the Kazan aircraft plant No. 16 (now - Open Joint-Stock Company"Kazan Engine Production Association" /JSC KMPO/), where work was carried out on new types of rocket engines for the purpose of using them in aviation. Here S.P. Korolev, with his characteristic enthusiasm, devotes himself to the idea practical use rocket engines for the improvement of aviation: reducing the length of the aircraft's takeoff run during takeoff and increasing the speed and dynamic characteristics of aircraft during air combat.

At the beginning of 1943, he was appointed chief designer of the group rocket launchers. Was engaged in improvement technical characteristics Pe-2 dive bomber, whose first flight with the current rocket launcher took place in October 1943.

According to the memoirs of L. L. Kerber, S. P. Korolev was a skeptic, a cynic and a pessimist, who looked absolutely gloomily at the future, “They will slam without an obituary,” was his favorite phrase. At the same time, there is a statement by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov regarding S.P. Korolev: “He was never embittered... He never complained, never cursed or scolded anyone. He didn't have time for that. He understood that embitterment does not cause creative impulse, but oppression."

In July 1944, S.P. Korolev was released early from prison with his criminal record expunged but without rehabilitation (minutes of the July 27, 1944 meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR) on personal instructions, after which he worked in Kazan for another year.

Daughter Queen said: “Dad miraculously survived. I flew to the Maldyak mine in the summer of 1991. It was a small village where two barracks were preserved in which the authorities lived. But the camp doctor Tatyana Dmitrievna Repyeva was still alive. She, of course, did not Korolev remembered the prisoner, but she told how they saved people from scurvy: they brought raw potatoes from home, rubbed the gums of the sick, made decoctions from fir cones. The father was able to survive. Mikhail Aleksandrovich Usachev, director of the Moscow Aviation Plant before his arrest, also played a major role in the rescue of Sergei Pavlovich. The plane on which Chkalov crashed was built. Usachev was a master of sports in boxing, and he decided to restore order in the camp where criminals ruled. He called the headman: “Show me your farm!” They went into the tent where my dying father lay. Usachev asked: “Who is this?” - “This is the King, one of yours, but he won’t get up!” When Usachev threw away his rags and saw my father, whom he knew before, he realized that something incredible had happened and he needed to be saved. He got his father transferred to the infirmary and forced the criminals to share their rations. And soon an order came to send the pope to Moscow to review the case. A second trial took place, which sentenced him to eight years in prison. After the Maldyak mine, my father hated gold all his life.".

On January 12, 2007, a high relief of S. P. Korolev by sculptor M. M. Gasimov was inaugurated on the building (entrance) of JSC KMPO.

Ballistic missiles of Sergei Korolev

On May 13, 1946, Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1017-419ss “Issues of Jet Weapons” appears. S.P. Korolev is not directly mentioned in the text of the Resolution, but in accordance with this document he was appointed to a new place of work.

In August 1946, he was appointed Chief Designer of the Special Design Bureau No. 1 (OKB-1), created in Kaliningrad near Moscow, to develop ballistic missiles long-range, and the head of department No. 3 of NII-88 for their development. Almost immediately, the Council of Chief Designers appeared.

Speaking about the design of Soviet missiles that followed the R-1, it is difficult to distinguish between the time periods for their creation. So, Korolev thought about the R-2 back in Germany, when the R-1 project had not yet been discussed, he was developing the R-5 even before the delivery of the R-2, and even earlier, work began on the small mobile rocket R-11 and the first calculations for the intercontinental R-7 rocket.

The first task set by the government to S.P. Korolev, as the Chief Designer of OKB-1, and all organizations involved missile weapons, was the creation of an analogue of the V-2 rocket from Soviet materials. But already in 1947, a decree was issued on the development of new ballistic missiles with a greater flight range than the V-2 - up to 3000 km.

In 1948, S.P. Korolev began flight design tests of the R-1 ballistic missile (analogue of the V-2) and in 1950 he successfully put it into service.

During 1954 alone, Korolev simultaneously worked on various modifications of the R-1 rocket (R-1A, R-1B, R-1B, R-1D, R-1E), completed work on the R-5 and outlined five different modifications of it , completed complex and responsible work on the R-5M missile - with a nuclear warhead. Work was underway on the R-11 and its marine version R-11FM, and the intercontinental R-7 acquired increasingly clear features.

In 1956, under the leadership of S.P. Korolev, a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was created with a detachable warhead weighing 3 tons and a flight range of 8 thousand km. The rocket was successfully tested in 1957 at Test Site No. 5 in Kazakhstan (the current Baikonur Cosmodrome) built for this purpose.

For combat duty of these missiles in 1958-1959, a combat launch station (Angara facility) was built in the area of ​​​​the village of Plesetsk ( Arhangelsk region, the current Plesetsk cosmodrome). A modification of the R-7A missile with a range increased to 11 thousand km was in service with the USSR Strategic Missile Forces from 1960 to 1968.

In 1957, Sergei Pavlovich created the first ballistic missiles using stable fuel components (mobile land and sea based) - he became a pioneer in these new and important areas of development of missile weapons.

The first artificial satellite of the Earth by Sergei Korolev

In 1955 (long before the flight tests of the R-7 rocket), S. P. Korolev, M. V. Keldysh, M. K. Tikhonravov came to the government with a proposal to launch an artificial Earth satellite into space using the R-7 rocket ). The government supported this initiative. In August 1956, OKB-1 left NII-88 and became an independent organization, the chief designer and director of which was appointed S.P. Korolev.

To implement manned flights and launches of automatic space stations, S.P. Korolev developed a family of perfect three- and four-stage launch vehicles based on a combat rocket.

On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite in human history was launched into low-Earth orbit. His flight was a stunning success and created high international authority for the Soviet Union.

“He was small, this very first artificial satellite of our old planet, but his sonorous call signs spread across all continents and among all peoples as the embodiment of mankind’s daring dream.”, - said S.P. Korolev later.

In parallel with preparations for manned flights, work is underway on satellites for scientific, economic and defense purposes. In 1958, the geophysical Sputnik-3 was developed and launched into space, and then the paired Elektron satellites to study the Earth's radiation belts.

In 1959, three automatic stations to the Moon were created and launched: “Luna-1” flew near the Moon, “Luna-2” was the first in the world to fly from Earth to another cosmic body Having “symbolically” delivered the pennant of the Soviet Union to the Moon (after hitting the surface, the satellite with the pennant instantly turned into gas), Luna-3 for the first time photographed the far (invisible from Earth) side of the Moon.

Subsequently, S.P. Korolev began developing a more advanced lunar apparatus for soft landing on the surface of the Moon, photographing and transmitting a lunar panorama to Earth (the so-called object E-6).

Launch of the first man into space

April 12, 1961 S.P. Korolev again amazes the world community. Having created the first manned spaceship"Vostok-1", it implements the world's first human flight into space - a citizen of the USSR in low-Earth orbit. Sergei Pavlovich is in no hurry to solve the problem of human exploration of outer space. The first spacecraft made only one orbit: no one knew how a person would feel in such a prolonged weightlessness, what psychological stress would affect him during an unusual and unexplored space journey.

For preparing the first manned flight into space, S.P. Korolev was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the second time (the decree was not published).

Following the first flight of Yu. A. Gagarin, on August 6, 1961, German Stepanovich Titov made a second space flight on the Vostok-2 spacecraft, which lasted one day. Again - a scrupulous analysis of the influence of flight conditions on the functioning of the body. Then the joint flight of the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft, piloted by cosmonauts A.G. Nikolaev and P.R. Popovich, from August 11 to 12, 1962, direct radio communication was established between the cosmonauts.

The following year - a joint flight of cosmonauts V.F. Bykovsky and V.V. Tereshkova on the Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 spacecraft from June 14 to 16, 1963 - the possibility of a woman flying into space is being studied. After the flight, S. Korolev told his wife that there was no place for women in space.

From October 12 to 13, 1964, the more complex Voskhod spacecraft was in space with a crew of three people various specialties: ship commander, flight engineer and doctor.

The world's first spacewalk took place on March 18, 1965 during the flight of the Voskhod 2 spacecraft with a crew of two. Cosmonaut A. A. Leonov in a spacesuit exited through the airlock and was outside the ship for about 20 minutes.

Continuing to develop the program of manned near-Earth flights, Sergei Pavlovich begins to implement his ideas about the development of a manned DOS (long-term orbital station). Its prototype was a fundamentally new, more advanced than previous ones, Soyuz spacecraft. This ship included a living compartment where astronauts could for a long time be without spacesuits and conduct Scientific research. During the flight, automatic docking in orbit of two Soyuz spacecraft and the transfer of cosmonauts from one spacecraft to another through outer space in spacesuits were also envisaged. Sergei Pavlovich did not live to see his ideas implemented in the Soyuz spacecraft.

Also back in the mid-1950s Korolev hatched the idea of ​​putting a man on the moon. The corresponding space program was developed with the support. However, this program was never implemented during Sergei Pavlovich’s lifetime due to the lack of unity of command (the program was developed under the leadership of the USSR Ministry of Defense, in which Korolev did not work), disagreements with the chief designer of rocket engines V.P. Glushko, as well as a change in the leadership of the CPSU - did not attach the same importance to the lunar program as Khrushchev. After the death of Sergei Pavlovich, the program for launching astronauts to the Moon was gradually curtailed. The Soviet lunar exploration program was subsequently carried out using unmanned spacecraft.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev ( documentary)

Illness and death of Sergei Korolev

Korolev had polyps in the rectum, which it was decided to remove surgically. The operation seemed uncomplicated to the doctors.

Sergei Pavlovich was operated on by the Minister of Health of the USSR, full member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor B.V. Petrovsky, and Petrovsky was assisted by the head of the surgical department, associate professor, candidate of medical sciences D.F. Blagovidov.

It was not possible to stop the bleeding by removing the polyps. They decided to open the abdominal cavity. When they began to get to the site of the bleeding, they discovered a tumor the size of a fist. It was a sarcoma - a malignant tumor. Petrovsky decided to remove the sarcoma. At the same time, part of the rectum was removed. It was necessary to remove the remaining part through the peritoneum.

Due to an untreated injury received in exile (according to the version, see above, the investigator broke Korolev’s jaw by hitting Sergei Pavlovich on the cheekbone with a decanter; due to unsuccessful bone fusion, Korolev could not open his mouth wide enough while eating), difficulties arose during intubation trachea. They could not insert a breathing tube into his trachea correctly.

Medical report on the illness and cause of death of comrade Sergei Pavlovich Korolev: "Comrade S.P. Korolev was sick with sarcoma of the rectum. In addition, he had: atherosclerotic cardiosclerosis, sclerosis of the cerebral arteries, pulmonary emphysema and metabolic disorders. S.P. Korolev underwent an operation to remove the tumor with extirpation of the rectum and part sigmoid colon. The death of Comrade S.P. Korolev was caused by heart failure (acute myocardial ischemia)", - stated in the conclusion, which was signed by: Minister of Health of the USSR, full member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor B.V. Petrovsky; full member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor A. A. Vishnevsky; head of the surgical department of the hospital, associate professor, candidate of medical sciences D. F. Blagovidov; Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor A. I. Strukov; Head of the Fourth Main Directorate under the USSR Ministry of Health, Honored Scientist, Professor A. M. Markov.

Boris Vasilievich Petrovsky told Y. Golovanov: “The biopsy really showed a polyp in the rectum, and I prescribed an operation to rid Sergei Pavlovich of this polyp. An attempt was previously made under anesthesia using an endoscope to take tissue again for analysis, but severe bleeding began , and the need for surgery became obvious."

Petrovsky says the same thing in his book: “Laparotomy (opening the abdominal cavity) showed the presence of immobile malignant tumor, growing into the rectum and pelvic wall. With great difficulty, an electric knife was used to isolate the tumor and take a biopsy, which confirmed the presence of the most malignant tumor - angiosarcoma."

In 1973, the Washington Post newspaper published an article by a doctor who emigrated from the USSR, who claimed that there was no sarcoma, there was a polyp and Korolev died as a result medical error. The same version was supported by the famous surgeon, academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences F.G. Angle

The coffin with the body of the late S.P. Korolev was installed in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. Access to farewell to the deceased was opened on January 17, 1966 from 12 noon to 8 pm. The funeral with state honors took place on Red Square in Moscow on January 18 at 13:00.

The urn with the ashes of S.P. Korolev is buried in the Kremlin wall.

Personal life of Sergei Korolev:

Was married twice.

First wife - Ksenia Maximilianovna Vincentini (1907-1991), surgeon. In 1935, the marriage gave birth to a daughter, Natalia Sergeevna, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor, laureate of the State Prize.

“My mother’s grandfather was an Italian, his name was Maximilian. At the age of 25, he came to Bessarabia, converted to Orthodoxy and after baptism became Nicholas. I know about my great-grandfather that for fifteen years he was the director of the Chisinau School of Viticulture and Winemaking and received noble title. He named his son Maximilian. My mother is Vincentini Ksenia Maximilianovna. She did not change this surname and bore it all her life...

When my dad was arrested, I was only three years old. Mom, of course, said that she would work for her husband, but family council decided that she does not have the right to do this because she has a small child, and her father’s mother, Maria Nikolaevna, will petition. The mothers were not touched. And my grandmother rushed to save her only son. She wrote letters and telegrams to Stalin, Yezhov, then Beria,” said the daughter of Sergei Korolev.

Second wife - Nina Ivanovna (10/20/1920 - 4/25/1999).

“She invaded our family, knowing that Sergei Pavlovich had a wife and child. So I am his only daughter. But we must pay tribute: Nina Ivanovna devoted her whole life to him,” said Koroleva’s daughter.

Sergei Korolev with his second wife Nina Ivanovna(in the role of Korolev -).

documentaries:

Empire Queen;
2004 - Sergey Korolev. Destiny - creative workshop “Studio A”, “Channel One”;
2006 - Liberation of the designer - television company "Civilization", cycle "Korolev's Empire". Film 1st. TV channel Culture;
2006 - Trophy space - television company "Civilization", cycle "Korolev's Empire". Film 2. TV channel Culture;
2006 - Inaccessible Moon - TV company “Civilization”, cycle “Korolev’s Empire”. Film 3. TV channel Culture;
2006 - Tsar Rocket. Interrupted flight - Roscosmos TV studio, TV Center;
2006 - The world consists of stars and people - TV Channel Culture;
2007 - First on Mars. The unsung song of Sergei Korolev - Roscosmos television studio;
2007 - Sergey Korolev. Reaching Heaven - television studio Prospekt TV, Channel One;
2007 - Sergiy Korolyov - NTU, 2007, (in Russian-Ukrainian language);
2009 - Five deaths of Academician Korolev - Studio “07 Production”, TV channel “Inter” (in Russian-Ukrainian language);
2010 - Korolev. Countdown - NTV channel;
2011 - Sergey Korolev. Life at cosmic speed - Roscosmos television studio, Russian Space program, Russia-2 TV channel.

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 even though her life's journey 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

Natasha Koroleva (real name Natalya Vladimirovna Poryvay) is a pop singer who received popular love after the release of the album “Yellow Tulips”, recorded jointly with Igor Nikolaev. Among her songs are such hits as “Little Country”, “A Little Bit Doesn’t Count”, “Blue Swans” and dozens of other lyrical ballads and fiery dance compositions.

Childhood of Natasha Koroleva

Natasha Poryvay, who was born in Kyiv, grew up in a creative family: the girl’s father was a choirmaster, and her mother, Honored Artist of Ukraine Lyudmila Poryvay, conducted the Svetoch choir. My 5-year-older sister, Irina, was a musically gifted child and subsequently performed solo under the pseudonym Rusya. It is not surprising that already at the age of 3 Natasha Poryvay made her debut on stage together with the Big Choir of Radio and Television of Ukraine, performing the song “Cruiser Aurora”.

At the age of 7, the girl was enrolled in a music school for piano class and, at the same time, in the choreographic studio named after Grigory Verevka. An important event What predetermined the baby’s fate was her acquaintance with the composer Vladimir Bystryakov, who took the gifted Natasha under his wing. At the age of 12, she began performing with his songs (“Where did the circus go”, “World of miracles”), thanks to which she quickly became the star of all city holidays: children's matinees, government congresses, New Year's lights, city days - every event was accompanied by the clear voice of Natasha Poryvay . In 1987, the girl became a winner of the Golden Tuning Fork folk music competition.

In the same year, Natasha made her first appearance on television, in the “Wider Circle” program (a kind of prototype of the “Minute of Fame” show), which gave a ticket to fame to many aspiring performers: Dmitry Malikov, Leonid Agutin, the group “Secret”... But for real significant event for the young singer it was a performance at a vocal competition in Evpatoria. She did not take any prizes, but attracted the attention of Elvira, the assistant of the famous Moscow television producer Marta Mogilevskaya. Natasha gave the woman a cassette with her own material, not knowing that this act would later play a huge role in her life.

Natasha Koroleva in the program “Wider Circle” (1986)

Some time passed, but no news came from Moscow, and Natasha continued to build a career in her native Ukraine, entering the Kiev Variety and Circus School to major in “Variety Vocals.” In the summer of 1989, she went on tour to the States.

The vocal girl produced strong impression to American vocal teachers who invited her to become a student at the Eastman School of Music at the prestigious University of Rochester. But Natasha, who by that time had been contacted by representatives of Martha Mogilevskaya, rejected this tempting offer and set off to conquer Moscow.

Casting Natasha Koroleva

The heyday of Natasha Koroleva’s career. "Dolphin and the Mermaid"

In the fall of 1989, Marta Mogilevskaya advised Igor Nikolaev, Alla Pugacheva’s former arranger and an aspiring singer who was in a creative stupor, to find a suitable girl to record together. The choice fell on Natasha for two reasons: firstly, her vocal abilities were an order of magnitude higher than those of the other contenders, and secondly, the short girl looked ideal next to the 172-centimeter singer.

At the first meeting, Igor was quite skeptical about this idea: the 16-year-old plump “Khokhlushka” did not look like a spectacular pop diva, and besides, she was embarrassed by the singer, who seemed to her like a king and a god of music. However, after listening, he was pleasantly surprised and soon wrote the song “Yellow Tulips” for the young protégé, which became the title track of the album of the same name, released in 1990. On the cover of the record there was an inscription: “Natasha Koroleva sings the songs of Igor Nikolaev.”

Natasha Poryvai turned into Koroleva in a completely natural way: the pseudonym was invented by Nikolaev, who was sure that the audience would not be able to remember the surname “Poryvai”, and it sounds somehow plebeian, another thing is the proud, impressive “Koroleva”.

After the release of the album, Natasha Koroleva’s popularity began to literally go off scale. “Yellow Tulips” brought the girl to the final of the main event music competition countries - “Songs of the Year”. The stadiums and concert venues were overcrowded, fans brought armfuls of yellow tulips to their favorite artist, and when Natasha, who had broken her leg, took a short time out, admirers of her work asked to carry the plastered girl onto the stage.

“Song of the Year 1990”: Natasha Koroleva – “Yellow Tulips”

In 1991, Natasha Koroleva graduated from the Variety and Circus School. In 1992, the album “Dolphin and the Mermaid” was released, and the creative tandem of Igor and Natasha went on a grandiose tour of the cities of Russia with the program of the same name, which over the next three years conquered not only the remote corners of our homeland, but also big cities USA, Israel and Germany.

In 1994, the singer released a solo album called “Fan” (the music and lyrics were still the credit of Igor Nikolaev). However, she had to win the trust of listeners who did not want to believe in the end of “The Dolphin and the Mermaid” and recognize Natasha as an independent creative unit. Thanks to long hard work, the singer was able to regain the public's favor. For example, in the spring of 1995, she held three charity concerts in the Far East as a show of support for victims of the devastating earthquake on Sakhalin.

In 1995, Koroleva’s second exclusively solo album, “Confetti,” was released, consisting of eleven songs. Among them was the composition “Little Country,” which soon conquered federal television and radio airwaves, turning into an immortal hit for children and adults who continue to believe in the fairy tale.

Natasha Koroleva: “I’m a random person in show business”

At this time, Natasha Koroleva made her debut as an actress in the musical “Old Songs about the Main Thing,” where she played the daughter of the chairman and, together with Lada Dance and Alena Apina, sang the song “Someone Came Down the Hill.” Over time, she appeared in the next three parts of the musical film: in the second she parodied the image of the heroine Svetlana Svetlichnaya from “The Diamond Arm”, in the third she sang a duet with Chris Norman, and in the final one with Alexander Tsekalo.

In 1997, Natasha was cast in the role of Malvina in the musical “The Newest Adventures of Pinocchio” (it is noteworthy that Pinocchio himself was played by Kristina Orbakaite). In between filming, Natalya worked on new material, and in December of the same year, Koroleva’s fans greeted her new album, “Diamonds of Tears,” with jubilation. Many listeners noted that Natasha had changed both externally and spiritually - from the cover it was no longer a girl who looked slyly at the buyers, but a fully formed lady. The lyrics have also become more mature: the “small country” has been replaced by “a girl dreaming of big love.”

WITH new program she went on a world tour, during which she was applauded by the audiences of London, New York, Berlin and Athens, and in 1999 she went on tour again with Igor Nikolaev and the concert program “The Dearest”.

In 2000, the Queen thought about specialized education and entered the acting department of GITIS, which she graduated from three years later.

New creativity of Natasha Koroleva

In 2000, the union of Natasha Koroleva and Igor Nikolaev broke up both creatively and personally. The singer lost the support of her loved one and the help of a talented composer. The album “Heart”, released shortly after the breakup, did without Nikolaev’s participation. Natalya was helped by composer Alexander Konovalov and songwriter Vladimir Vulykh - they wrote the iconic composition “It Was or Wasn’t.”

In 2002, the singer released a collection of her best hits entitled “Shards of the Past.” It included 14 of Koroleva’s hits, as well as a new song “A Little Bit Doesn’t Count.” “What has become of me now? But life goes on,” was heard from every radio in the country.

Natasha Koroleva – “A little bit doesn’t count”

Natasha Koroleva's next album was recorded together with her new chosen one Sergei Glushko, also known under the pseudonym Tarzan. The record was called "Believe it or not." Three years later, the couple presented another joint work called “Heaven Is Where You Are.” The album of the same name was released with the support of the Dream Crystal jewelry house, whose face Natasha has been since August 2006.

In 2008, Natasha was invited to the show “Dancing with the Stars,” pairing the singer with choreographer Evgeniy Papunaishvili. Behind short term The queen had to learn many complex dance steps, but her efforts were rewarded only with third place.

“Dancing with the Stars”: Natasha Koroleva and Evgeniy Papunaishvili

And the next year, Natasha presented her writing debut, a largely autobiographical novel, “Male Striptease.” The singer’s experiments did not stop there: she soon became the owner of a beauty salon, which was called “Natasha Koroleva’s Beauty Salon.”

In the summer of 2010, the singer, together with Oleg Gazmanov, went to a festival of Russian culture in Germany. All proceeds from the sale of tickets to the star's concert were transferred to charitable foundation Red Cross. In November 2013, the star announced the termination of touring activities.

From 2012 to 2014, Natasha, together with her mother, Lyudmila Poryvai, hosted the program “Time for Lunch” on Channel One. The show compared home and restaurant kitchens - ordinary housewives challenged professional chefs.

Personal life of Natasha Koroleva: between a dolphin and a stripper

It cannot be said that the so-called “natural chemistry” was discovered at first glance between Natasha Koroleva and Igor Nikolaev. However, while working on the “Dolphin and Mermaid” program, the man fell in love with the girl, which grew stronger every day, turning into something more intimate, inspiring him to create melodic, slightly sad ballads.

Natasha’s acquaintances noticed that she, although she desperately denied it, also fell in love with Nikolaev: with open mouth I caught his every word, copied his gestures and manner of speech. They began to live together, but Natasha, brought up in strictness, immediately confronted the singer with a fact: no civil marriage, only legalized relationships: “I had very strict rules and believed that everything should only happen after the wedding. True, now I have changed my mind - I think that you should first check your partner, and then marry him... When I realized that Igor’s courtship was going too far, I said: “Either officially, or not at all.” He had to think..."

Still, the musician did not want the relationship to be made public, so Natasha had to take everything into her own hands and make a cunning knight move. She and her parents came home to Nikolaev and invited the registry office employees there - no feasts, magnificent dresses and rings, only stamps in the passport.

In 2000, Natasha Koroleva left her husband. According to the singer, the reason for this was Nikolaev’s constant betrayal. Although the separation occurred without scandals and scenes of jealousy, both took this break very hard.

In an attempt to distract herself from the oppressive wound in her heart, Natasha plunged headlong into work. For one of the performances, she invited a group of dancers of the “original genre”, in other words, strippers. Among them was the blond, broad-shouldered handsome Tarzan, who was to discuss with Natasha the details of future payment.

Arkhip, the first-born of Natasha and Tarzan, was born in February 2002, and in August 2003 the lovers officially got married. This time everything was for real: the bride dressed in White dress, noisy company the guests were driven along the Neva by a motor ship, doves were released into the sky, and Natasha's unmarried friends caught the bride's lush bouquet.

The public received the news ambiguously. Not everyone was able to rejoice at Natasha’s happiness, reproaching her for “the broken heart of the maestro [Igor Nikolaev].” Tarzan himself commented on the situation like this: “I didn’t take Natasha away from him. When we started our relationship, she had already been living separately for a year, he had his own life. How to creative person, I have a very good attitude towards him, I like his songs.”

In 2008, Igor Nikolaev, who had ignored everything for several years creative success girls and calling his former protégé exclusively by her real name, took the first step towards reconciliation with his ex-lover. Natasha accepted the apology, and since then the former partners began to communicate as close friends.

A short time later, they appeared on stage together again to delight their loyal fans with an original performance of “The Dolphin and the Mermaid”; Nikolaev also wrote a new song for Natasha (“Dream Crystal”).

Natasha Koroleva and Alexander Marshal - “I am defamed by you”

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was the first who managed to conquer outer space.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev - outstanding Soviet designer and a scientist of the 20th century, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, founder of cosmonautics, creator of programs and a leading specialist in the field of rocketry and shipbuilding.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, born in Zhitomir, December 30, 1906. In 1917, his mother and stepfather, a mechanical engineer, moved to Odessa, a port on the Black Sea. Sergei began to take an interest in aviation technology when he school years, showed exceptional abilities and ingenuity in classes in circles, and in 1921 he participated in the life of the Odessa hydraulic squad. At the age of seventeen, he designed and defended before a state commission the K-5 non-motorized aircraft, which was subsequently recommended for construction.

Birth of a dream

After graduating from the Odessa Construction Vocational School, in 1924 he was admitted to the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, where he joined the glider club and developed the first airplane. Two years later, Korolev transferred to the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU) named after N.E. Bauman, the best engineering institute in Russia. He became a student of Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev, a famous aircraft manufacturer, and in December 1929, under the guidance of Tupolev, he defended his thesis - the project of a light aircraft SK-4 designed to achieve a record flight range. The aircraft designed during his studies at the institute—the Koktebel and Krasnaya Zvezda gliders and the graduation project for the SK-4 aircraft—showed Korolev’s abilities as a competent engineer and aircraft designer.

In 1929, he met with K.E. Tsiolkovsky, who advised him to take up space flight, gave him the book “Space Rocket Trains” and recommended contacting Friedrich Arturovich Zander, an engineer at TsAGI (Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute).

1931 Sergei Korolev and Friedrich Zander founded the Moscow public organization"Jet Propulsion Study Group" (GIRD). Already in April 1932, the group became a state research and development laboratory for rocket aircraft. Sergei Korolev's leadership of flight tests contributed to the successful launch of a liquid-fuel rocket - GIRD-09, August 17, 1933.

The Soviet leadership, understanding the military potential in the research and development of rocketry for the defense capability of the Soviet Union, decided to merge the GIRD and the Leningrad Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL). In 1933, the Jet Research Institute (RNII) was created, led by I.T. Kleymenov. Korolev was appointed deputy with the rank of division engineer (the abbreviated title for the position of division engineer and military rank senior command staff in the Red Army).

1935 Korolev - head of the rocket aircraft department; within a year, tests of cruise missiles were being carried out: long-range - with a liquid rocket engine and anti-aircraft - with a powder rocket engine. The department is busy working on long-range cruise and ballistic missiles, air-launched missiles, air and ground missiles, and solid-fuel anti-aircraft missiles.
However, the views of Korolev and the institute’s management did not coincide with the prospects for the development of rocketry. Sergey Pavlovich leaves the post of deputy director of the RNII and goes to work as a senior engineer.

S.P. Korolev continued to work on the design of the first manned jet rocket plane by upgrading the basic two-seat glider SK-9. Fuel tanks were designed behind the cockpit and a RDA-1-150 hp liquid-propellant jet engine was installed. The start of flights of the first Soviet rocket plane was convincingly proven - the Soviet Union had reached a level in rocket engine construction where the production of rocket planes with liquid propellant engines for industry had become commonplace.

The significance of this project is not that it was the first step in the era of jet aviation, but the beginning in the conquest of outer space.

Arrest. Closed KBs

Repression in the Soviet Union, which gained momentum in the late thirties of the twentieth century, also reached the rocket scientists. Fate was predicted at the moment when Mikhail Tukhachevsky was arrested and destroyed - whose patronage and attention was manifested in solving the problems of GIRD and RNII.

The head of the RNII, Ivan Kleimenov, and the chief engineer of the RNII, Georgy Langemak, were arrested and disappeared into the dungeons. In March 1938, engine designer Valentin Glushko was arrested on a false denunciation.

Sergei Korolev was taken into custody on June 27, 1938. Why was he convicted and imprisoned? Korolev Sergey Pvlovich is in prison. The indictment stated: “since 1935, he was a member of a Trotskyist sabotage organization, on whose instructions he carried out criminal work at NII-3 to disrupt the development and delivery of new types of weapons to the Red Army,” in particular:

...- in 1936 he led the development of a gunpowder winged torpedo; Knowing in advance that the main parts of this torpedo - devices with photocells - for controlling the torpedo and pointing it at the target, cannot be manufactured by the central laboratory of wired communications, Korolev, in order to load the institute unnecessary work intensively led the development of the missile part of this torpedo in 2 versions;

...- As a result of this, tests of four torpedoes built by Korolev showed their complete unsuitability, which caused damage to the state in the amount of 120,000 rubles
and the development of other, more relevant topics has been delayed;

...- in 1937, when developing the side compartment of a torpedo (winged), he made a wrecking calculation, as a result of which research papers upon creation, the torpedoes were disrupted;

...- artificially delayed the production and testing of defense facilities. They accused him of developing a solid-fuel rocket in order to delay the development of more important areas. Prevented the creation of an effective power system for the on-board autopilot of the rocket. He developed obviously unusable engines.

He pleaded guilty, but subsequently recanted his testimony.

The Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Ulrich, sentenced Korolev to 10 years in prison with disqualification for five years and confiscation of personal property. After a long stage of railway and by sea on April 21, 1939, Sergei Pavlovich arrived in Kolyma, and since August he has been working at the Maldyak gold mine.

The leadership of the Soviet Union recognized the need for engineering developments by aircraft manufacturers to prepare for a possible war with Nazi Germany. The country has created a system of “sharashkas” (prison design bureaus) to exploit imprisoned “talent” capable of creating new weapons for the Red Army.

For reviewing the case of S.P. Korolev’s mother, M.N., fought. Balanin, with the support of the famous pilots M.M. Gromov and V.S. Grizodubova. On March 2, 1940, by a special meeting, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison and sent to the Moscow NKVD special prison TsKB-29, where he was headed by A.N. Tupolev, also a prisoner, participated in the creation of the Pe-2 and Tu-2 bombers and at the same time proactively developed projects for a guided aerial torpedo and a new version of a missile interceptor.

After the end of World War II, Korolev was sent to Germany to study the Nazi V-2 rockets and other rocket technologies. In August 1946, he was appointed chief designer for the long-range ballistic missile project.

After Stalin's death in 1953, Korolev joined the Communist Party and received the support of leader and compatriot Nikita Khrushchev, who understood the prospects for the development and improvement of the military missile potential program for the USSR. On April 1, 1953, Korolev received approval from the Council of Ministers to create the first two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the R-7. The following year, a proposal to launch artificial satellites into Earth orbit was also approved.

​Artificial Earth satellite (AES)

The Korolev R-7 launch vehicle launched the first artificial Earth satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957.

“It was small, this very first artificial satellite of our old planet, but its ringing call signs spread across all continents and among all peoples as the embodiment of the daring dream of mankind,” S.P. later said. Korolev.

Sputnik launch raised US concerns that the Soviet Union was poised to attack the United States nuclear weapons using ballistic missiles, thus began the “Space Race” between the USSR and the USA.

In 1959, Korolev participated in the preparation and launch of lunar probes to the Moon. Based on the results of these missions, preparations began for sending a Soviet cosmonaut to the Moon. Korolev identified three tasks, the solution of which would yield a result - the conquest of the Moon.

First goal was achieved when the Vostok 1 spacecraft launched the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space on April 12, 1961, proving that human space flight was possible.
August 1961. G.S. Titov made his second space flight on the Vostok-2 spacecraft, which lasted a day.
August 1962. Joint flight of the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft, piloted by cosmonauts A.G. Nikolaev and P.R. Popovich; direct radio communication was established between the astronauts.
June 1963. Joint flight of cosmonauts V.F. Bykovsky and V.V. Tereshkova on the Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 spacecraft
The world's first spacewalk took place on March 18, 1965 during the flight of the Voskhod 2 spacecraft with a crew of two. Astronaut A.A. Leonov, wearing a spacesuit, went out through the airlock and was outside the ship for about 20 minutes.

Second goal was to create lunar vehicles that could land softly on the surface of the Moon.

Third task was to create a powerful launch vehicle to send astronauts and cargo to the Moon.
Sergei Korolev began work on the N-1 launch vehicle, comparable to the American Saturn V launch vehicle, in 1962. This rocket was supposed to launch up to 90 tons into low-Earth orbit, but four test launches of the N-1 were unsuccessful.

In July 1969, American ship Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, with the first astronauts on board.

In 1974, the Soviet manned lunar landing program was closed, and in 1976, work on the N-1 was also officially closed.

Personal life of S.P. Queen

Sergei Korolev was married twice. He first married in August 1931 to classmate Ksenia Vincentini, and in 1935 she gave birth to his daughter. Natalia Sergeevna (1935), Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor, State Prize laureate, wrote the book " Father".

Sergei Korolev with his wife Ksenia and daughter

In 1948, the family broke up.

He met his second wife, Nina Ivanovna Kotenkova, who was a translator at NII-88, at work.

Health S.P. Korolev's condition began to deteriorate in 1960 and on January 14, 1966, he died after a minor operation. Perhaps the cause of Korolev’s death was weakening immune system, which never recovered after imprisonment and torture during the years of repression.

The death was a blow to the Soviet space program: a loss that is irreplaceable.

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.

Urn with the ashes of S.P. The queen is buried in the Kremlin wall.

Quotes from Sergei Pavlovich Korolev

• People will fly into space on trade union vouchers.
• The time will come when a spaceship with people will leave the Earth and go on a journey. A reliable bridge from Earth to space has already been built by the launch of Soviet artificial satellites, and the road to the stars is open!
• Order frees thought.
• If you criticize someone else's, offer your own. If you suggest, do it.
• A rocket underwater is absurd. But that's why I'm going to do this.
• You can do it quickly, but poorly, or you can do it slowly, but well. After a while, everyone will forget that it was fast, but they will remember that it was bad. And vice versa.

Memory of the designer S.P. Korolev

By Presidential Decree Russian Federation No. 1020 of July 8, 1996
"Supporting the appeal of collectives of enterprises and organizations of the city of Kaliningrad, Moscow region, as well as the city administration" city of Kaliningrad
Moscow region was renamed the city of Korolev.

Monuments to S.P. Korolev was installed in many cities in Russia and the world: Moscow, Korolev (Moscow region) on Korolev Avenue, Taganrog, a bust in Samara near the Korolev National Research University, Cheboksary, on Korolev Avenue in St. Petersburg, Omsk, on Baikonur (Kazakhstan) , Kyiv (Ukraine), Zhitomir (Ukraine).

Airbus Airbus A321 (VQ-BEI) “S. Korolev" Aeroflot airline.

Films about Sergei Pavlovich Korolev

Feature and television

• I'm going to look, 1966.
• Taming of Fire, 1972.
• Running start - about the youth of S.P. Koroleva, 1982.
• Gagarin. First in space, 2013.
• Main, 2015.
• Time of the First, 2017.

Documentary

• Empire Korolev
• Sergey Korolev. Destiny - creative workshop “Studio A”, “Channel One”, 2004.
• Liberation of the designer - TV company "Civilization", series "Korolev's Empire". Film 1st. TV channel Culture, 2006.
• Trophy space - TV company "Civilization", cycle "Empire of Korolev". Film 2. TV channel Culture, 2006.
• Inaccessible Moon - TV company "Civilization", cycle "Empire of Korolev". Film 3. TV channel Culture, 2006.
• Tsar Rocket. Interrupted flight - Roscosmos TV studio, TV Center, 2006.