Sergei Pavlovich
Korolev
1907-1966
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1906-1966) was an outstanding Soviet designer and scientist, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the founder of cosmonautics and the largest specialist in the field of space shipbuilding. He studied at a professional construction school, and then, in 1924, entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, where he began to study aircraft engineering. Transferring to the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev moved to Moscow in 1926. He successfully designed various aircraft, but after meeting and talking with K.E. Tsiolkovsky he actively engaged in the study of jet propulsion and the development of rocket aircraft. The successful launch of the first rocket took place in 1933. Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was arrested and sent first to Kolyma on Stalin’s instructions in 1938, and then, after a review of the case, to a Moscow prison. A few years later he was released. Sergei Pavlovich Korolev created a rocket that had a nuclear warhead in 1954. The first rocket with a satellite was launched in 1957. This made it possible two years later to send three spacecraft to the surface of the Moon, to carry out the first human flight into space (1961) and an exit into open space (1965). He died in January 1966 of heart failure. A five-meter bronze figure of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev is installed on a high granite pedestal. The founder of practical cosmonautics is depicted in a suit with his left hand turned aside. On the pedestal there are bas-reliefs depicting the first artificial Earth satellite in Earth orbit, the take-off of the Vostok rocket with Yuri Gagarin on board, as well as the world’s first spacewalk by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
Address: 111 Mira Ave., Moscow
