The wives and children of Sergei Korolev. Sergei Pavlovich Korolev

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev is an outstanding Soviet designer, a key figure in our country's space exploration. He was a unique personality: a brilliant organizer, a man with an absolute sense of duty, a bright, impetuous life: a man of impulse. But few people know that the flip side of his temperamental character that did not tolerate monotony was the inconstancy of his feelings, which led him to personal loneliness. And the constant striving upward means that he “burned out” like a launch vehicle, not yet reaching the planned heights.
Sergei Korolev was born in Zhitomir on January 14, 1906 in the family of a teacher of Russian literature. He was about three years old when his parents divorced and his mother’s parents took care of his upbringing. After 9 years, his stepfather, who had an engineering education, had a great influence on the boy.
Already in childhood, he distinguished himself from his peers with his extraordinary abilities and indomitable craving for technology, including aviation. Thanks to his abilities, he enters the Moscow Higher Technical School named after Bauman and proves himself to be a capable aircraft designer. An indelible impression on him was made by K. E. Tsiolkovsky’s ideas about flights into the stratosphere, and he began to develop aircraft with jet propulsion. In 1933, Korolev became one of the leaders of the Jet Research Institute and under his leadership the first Soviet long-range ballistic missiles were created. He always had many unique ideas, but he never refined them, but transferred finished projects to other institutes and bureaus for further improvement. Sergei Pavlovich could easily abandon an almost completed project if he realized that something more relevant could be developed. The motto of his life became the words: “Forward!” and “Up!”.. He said to his friends: “You bend, but don’t break. Bend and bend your line... And then you will straighten up. It’s okay, it’s not scary.”
But life prepared trials for him in 1938, when he was arrested on charges of sabotage and was in the first (execution) category on the list of convicts. During torture during interrogation, his jaw was even broken, but he did not “break” or “bend in.” Fortunately, in those days the repressions had already reduced their scope and Korolev was sentenced to 10 years in the camps and dug gold-bearing soil in Kolyma. But in 1940 he was placed in the Moscow NKVD special prison, where A.N. Tupolev. And these “convicts” created the Pe-2 and Tu-2 bomber, as well as a guided air torpedo and a missile interceptor. In 1944, Korolev was released early. However, he was completely rehabilitated only in 1957.
The long years of imprisonment did not pass without a trace and, according to the recollections of some of his colleagues, Korolev became a skeptic, gloomily looking at the future with his favorite phrase: “They will be slammed without an obituary.” However, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov believed that Korolev “... was never embittered. He didn’t complain, didn’t curse anyone, didn’t scold anyone. He didn't have time for that. He understood that it is not a creative impulse that causes anger, but oppression.”

His colleagues perceived him as a commander, hot-tempered and courageous. He was even nicknamed “Ivan the Terrible” for his fits of rage, during which it was useless to explain anything to him. People usually waited until the morning, when, reassured, he came to the office and, patting the offender on the shoulder, said: “Well, did you get it yesterday? But he could have kicked him out. That is OK". But Korolev never forgave deception, and immediately removed a person from work if he noticed misinformation behind him.

The character of Sergei Pavlovich also affected his personal life. His first wife was his childhood friend, Ksenia Maximilianovna Vincenti, whom he sought for 7 years. The slender, blue-eyed beauty had many admirers, and Korolev made incredible efforts to have her become his wife. (I even stood on my hands on the roof of the house). Subsequently, he moved his beloved to Moscow (in 1931), where she began working in one of the Moscow clinics as a trauma surgeon. But soon Korolev lost interest in her and began to get involved with other women.

Driven to despair, Ksenia wrote to Korolev’s mother: “You know the whole story of our love well. Even before 1938 (the year of Korolev’s arrest) I had to endure a lot of grief, and, despite the remaining feeling of affection and some kind of love for Sergei, I firmly decided... to leave him so that he could continue his life under his favorite slogan “Give everyone to live as he wants...” 8 years after their marriage, they separated completely, and their common daughter, Natasha, was never able to forgive her father for his attitude towards her mother, who, as she believed, loved her father very much, having gone through all the trials with him.

She recalled: “My father’s arrest was such a terrible blow for my mother that at the age of 30 she turned completely gray. Mom told me later that some of her acquaintances turned away from her and did not greet her; Having met in the city, they crossed to the other side of the street. At work, some doctors and nurses refused to assist my mother when she performed surgical operations.” After Natasha, at the age of 12, found out the truth about her father (according to her mother), she hung up, not wanting to talk to him. And he, upset, sat at Baikonur and cried (according to the testimony of his comrades)….
However, some believed that Ksenia herself was to blame, since she did not want to leave Moscow and follow her husband to the training ground. He, lonely, poured out his soul in letters, but to another woman - Nina Ivanovna. She was an English translator, and they married when he was 40 and she was 27 years old.

“Well, I can’t help but write to you, my friend, and pour out my soul... because I have no one to talk to about this except you,” wrote Korolev, depressed by loneliness. But, apparently, his young wife did not understand his outpourings about problems at work, and he still suffered from personal loneliness.

Korolev died untimely on the operating table in 1966. It is difficult to even imagine what level the Soviet cosmonautics would have reached if not for his sudden death.

Exactly 50 years ago, on January 14, 1966, the outstanding Soviet scientist, designer and founder of practical cosmonautics Sergei Pavlovich Korolev passed away. This outstanding domestic figure will forever be remembered as the creator of Soviet rocket and space technology, who helped ensure strategic parity and turned the Soviet Union into an advanced rocket and space power, becoming one of the key figures in human space exploration. It was under the direct leadership of Korolev and on his initiative that the first artificial Earth satellite and the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin were launched. Today in Russia there is a city that was named after an outstanding scientist.

Sergei Korolev was a man of amazing destiny. He could have crashed on the glider, but he didn’t. He could well have been shot as an “enemy of the people,” but he was sentenced to prison. He could have died in the camps, but he survived. He was supposed to drown on a ship in the Pacific Ocean, but he was late for the ship, which crashed 5 days later. This great scientist survived to literally go through hardships to the stars and be the first to lead humanity into space. There was probably no other person on the planet who loved the sky so much and devotedly.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was born on January 12, 1907 (December 30, 1906, old style) in the city of Zhitomir in the family of a teacher of Russian literature, Pavel Yakovlevich Korolev, and the daughter of a Nezhin merchant, Maria Nikolaevna Moskalenko. He was three years old when the family broke up, and by his mother’s decision he was sent to be raised by his grandparents in Nizhyn, where Sergei lived until 1915. In 1916, his mother remarried and, together with her son and new husband Georgy Mikhailovich Balanin, moved to Odessa. In 1917, the future scientist entered the gymnasium, which he did not have time to graduate due to the outbreak of the revolution. The gymnasium was closed, and for 4 months he studied at a unified labor school, and then received education at home. He studied independently according to the gymnasium program with the help of his stepfather and mother, who were both teachers, and his stepfather, in addition to pedagogy, also had an engineering education.

While still studying at school, Sergei Korolev was distinguished by his exceptional abilities and great desire for aviation technology, which was new for that time. When a seaplane detachment was formed in Odessa in 1921, the future rocket designer became seriously interested in aeronautics. He made acquaintance with members of this detachment and made his first flights on a seaplane, deciding to become a pilot. At the same time, his passion for the sky was interspersed with his work in the school production workshop, where the future designer learned to work on a lathe; he turned out parts of very complex shapes and configurations. This "carpentry" school was very useful to him in the future when he began to build his own gliders.

At the same time, the future rocket designer did not manage to obtain a secondary education immediately; he did not have the conditions for this. Only in 1922 was a construction and trade school opened in Odessa, where the best teachers at that time taught. 15-year-old Sergei entered it. Korolev’s naturally excellent memory allowed him to memorize entire pages of text. The future designer studied very diligently, one might say, enthusiastically. His class teacher told his mother about him: “A guy with a king in his head.” He studied at a construction vocational school from 1922 to 1924, simultaneously studying in many circles and taking various courses.

In 1923, the government appealed to the people to create their own Air Fleet in the country. In Ukraine, the Aviation and Aeronautics Society of Ukraine and Crimea (OAVUK) was formed. Sergei Korolev immediately became a member of this society and began to study intensively in one of its gliding circles. In the circle, he even gave lectures on gliding to the workers. Korolev acquired knowledge on the history of aviation and gliding on his own by reading specialized literature, including a book in German. Already at the age of 17, he developed a project for an aircraft of an original design, the “K-5 engineless aircraft.”

In 1924, Sergei Korolev entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute majoring in aviation technology; in just 2 years he mastered general engineering disciplines and became a real glider athlete. In the fall of 1926, Korolev transferred to the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU) named after Bauman, where he studied at the aeromechanical department. The young student always studied with his characteristic diligence; he spent a lot of time studying on his own, visiting the technical library. Particularly popular in those years were the lectures of the young 35-year-old aircraft designer Tupolev, who gave an introductory course on aircraft construction to students. Even then, Tupolev noticed Sergei’s outstanding abilities and subsequently considered Korolev one of his best students.

While studying in Moscow, Sergei Korolev was already quite well known as a young and promising aircraft designer and an experienced glider pilot. Starting from the 4th year, he combined study and work at the design bureau. From 1927 to 1930 he took part in the All-Union gliding competitions, which took place in the Crimea near Koktebel. Here Korolev flew himself and also presented models of his gliders, including the SK-1 “Koktebel” and SK-3 “Red Star”.

His meeting with Tsiolkovsky, which took place in Kaluga in 1929 on the road from Odessa to Moscow, had a huge impact on the life of Sergei Korolev. This meeting predetermined the future life path of the scientist and designer. The conversation with Konstantin Eduardovich made an indelible impression on the young specialist. “Tsiolkovsky shocked me then with his unshakable faith in the possibility of space travel,” the designer recalled many years later, “I left him with one single thought: to build rockets and fly on them. The whole meaning of life for me became one thing - to reach the stars.”

In 1930, he began working at the Central Design Bureau of the Menzhinsky Plant, and from March of the following year he became a senior flight test engineer at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). In the same 1931, he took part in the organization of the GIRD - Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion, which he would head in 1932. Under the leadership of Sergei Korolev, the first launches of Soviet rockets were carried out using the GIRD-9 hybrid engine, which took place in August 1933, as well as using GIRD-X liquid fuel in November of the same year. After the merger of the Leningrad Gas Dynamic Laboratory (GDL) and the Moscow GIRD took place at the end of 1933 and the Jet Research Institute (RNII) was created, Sergei Korolev was appointed its deputy director for scientific affairs, and starting in 1934, he became the head rocket aircraft department.

In 1934, Sergei Korolev’s first printed work was published, which was called “Rocket Flight in the Stratosphere.” Already in this book, the designer warned that the rocket was very serious. He also sent a sample of the book to Tsiolkovsky, who called the book informative, reasonable and useful. Even then, Korolev dreamed of working as closely as possible on the construction of a rocket plane, but his plans were not destined to come true then. In the fall of 1937, the wave of repressions that swept the Soviet Union reached the RNII.

Korolev was arrested on false charges on June 27, 1938. On September 25, he was included in the list of persons subject to trial by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. On the list he was in the first category, which meant: the punishment recommended by the NKVD authorities was execution. The list was approved personally by Stalin, so the verdict could be considered practically confirmed. However, Korolev was “lucky”; he was sentenced to 10 years in the camps. Before that, he spent a year in Butyrka prison. According to some reports, the future space conqueror was subjected to serious torture and beatings, as a result of which his jaw was broken. The designer arrived in Kolyma on April 21, 1939, where he worked at the Maldyak gold mine of the Western Mining Directorate, while the rocket engine designer was busy with “general work.” On December 2, 1939, Korolev was sent to Vladlag.

Only on March 2, 1940, he again found himself in Moscow, was tried again, this time he was sentenced to 8 years in the camps, sent to a new place of imprisonment - to the Moscow special prison of the NKVD TsKB-29, in which, under the leadership of his teacher Tupolev, he took part in the development of the Tu-2 and Pe-2 bombers, while at the same time initiating work on the creation of a guided aerial torpedo and a new version of the missile interceptor fighter. These works became the reason for his transfer in 1942 to another design bureau, but also of a prison type - OKB-16, which worked in Kazan at aircraft plant No. 16. Here work was carried out on the creation of new types of rocket engines, which were later planned to be used in the aviation industry. After the start of the war, Korolev asked to be sent as a pilot to the front, but Tupolev, who by that time had already gotten to know and appreciated him well, did not let him go, saying: “Who will build the planes?”

Sergei Pavlovich was released early only in July 1944 on the personal instructions of Stalin, after which he continued to work in Kazan for another year. A major specialist in the field of aviation equipment, L. L. Kerber, who worked at TsKB-29, noted that Korolev was a cynic, a skeptic and a pessimist and looked rather gloomily into the future, attributing to the designer the phrase “They will slam without an obituary.” At the same time, there is a statement by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who noted that Korolev was never embittered and never complained, never gave up, never cursed or scolded anyone. The designer simply did not have time for this; he understood perfectly well that anger would not cause a creative impulse in him, but only his oppression.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, in the second half of 1945, Sergei Korolev, as part of a group of specialists, was sent to Germany on a business trip, where he studied German technology. Of particular interest to him was, of course, the German V-2 (V-2) rocket. In August 1946, the designer began work in Kaliningrad near Moscow, where he became the chief designer of long-range missiles and the head of department No. 3 at NII-88 for their development.

The first task that the government set for Korolev as the chief designer and all organizations involved in missile weapons at that time was the development of a Soviet analogue of the German V-2 rocket from domestic materials. At the same time, already in 1947, a new government decree appeared on the creation of new ballistic missiles with a greater flight range than the V-2 - up to 3 thousand km. In 1948, Korolev conducted flight design tests of the first Soviet ballistic missile R-1 (analogous to the V-2) and in 1950 put the missile into service. Over the next few years, he works on various modifications of this rocket. In just one year, 1954, he completed work on the R-5 rocket, outlining five of its possible modifications. Work was also completed on the R-5M missile equipped with a nuclear warhead. In addition, he worked on the R-11 missile and its naval version, and his future R-7 intercontinental missile was becoming increasingly clear.

Work on the R-7 intercontinental two-stage rocket was completed in 1956. It was a missile with a flight range of 8 thousand kilometers and a detachable warhead weighing up to 3 tons. The rocket, created under the direct supervision of Sergei Pavlovich, was successfully tested in 1957 at test site No. 5, specially built for this purpose, located in the Kazakh steppe (today it is the Baikonur Cosmodrome). A modification of this R-7A missile, which had a launch range increased to 11 thousand kilometers, was in service with the Strategic Missile Forces of the Soviet Union from 1960 to 1968. It is also worth noting the fact that in 1957, Korolev created the first ballistic missiles using stable fuel components (mobile ground and sea based); the designer became a real pioneer in these new and very important areas of missile development.

On October 4, 1957, a rocket designed by Sergei Korolev launched the first artificial satellite in history into earth orbit. From this day on, the era of practical cosmonautics began, and Korolev became the father of this era. Initially, only animals were sent into space, but already on April 12, 1961, the designer, together with his colleagues and like-minded people, successfully launched the Vostok-1 spacecraft, on board which was the planet’s first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin. With this flight, which would not have happened without Korolev, the era of manned astronautics begins.

Also, since 1959, Sergei Korolev has been in charge of the lunar exploration program. As part of this program, several spacecraft were sent to the Earth's natural satellite, including soft-landing vehicles. When designing a vehicle to land on the lunar surface, there was a lot of controversy about what it was. The generally accepted hypothesis at the time, put forward by astronomer Thomas Gold, was that the Moon was covered in a thick layer of dust due to micrometeor bombardment. But Korolev, who was familiar with another hypothesis - that of the Soviet volcanologist Heinrich Steinberg, ordered that the lunar surface be considered solid. His correctness was confirmed in 1966, when the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 made a soft landing on the Moon.

Another interesting story from the life of the great scientist and designer was the episode with the preparation of an automatic station to be sent to one of the planets of the solar system. When creating it, the designers were faced with the problem of excess weight of the research equipment on board the station. Sergei Korolev studied the station’s drawings, after which he checked the device, which was supposed to transmit information to Earth about the presence or absence of organic life on the planet. He took the device to a scorched Kazakh region not far from the cosmodrome and the device transmitted a radio signal that there was no life on Earth, which was the reason for excluding this unnecessary equipment from the station’s equipment.

During the life of the great designer, 10 cosmonauts managed to travel into space on spaceships of his design, in addition to Gagarin, a man went into outer space (this was done by Alexei Leonov on March 18, 1965). Under the direct leadership of Sergei Korolev, the first space complex, many geophysical and ballistic missiles were created in the USSR, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, the Vostok launch vehicle and its modifications, an artificial Earth satellite were launched, flights of the Vostok and "Vostok" spacecraft were carried out. Voskhod”, the first spacecraft of the “Luna”, “Venera”, “Mars”, “Zond” series were developed, the Soyuz spacecraft was developed.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev passed away quite early - on January 14, 1966 at the age of only 59 years. Apparently, the designer’s health was nevertheless undermined in Kolyma and the unfair accusation (in 1957 he was completely rehabilitated) left its mark on his health. By this time, Korolev had already done a lot to fulfill his dream of conquering space, he put it into practice. But some projects, for example the USSR lunar program, turned out to be unrealized. The lunar project was abandoned after the death of the outstanding designer.

In 1966, the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union established a gold medal “For outstanding achievements in the field of rocket and space technology” named after Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Monuments to him were erected in Zhitomir, Moscow and Baikonur. The memory of the designer was immortalized by a large number of streets named in his honor, as well as a memorial house-museum. In 1996, the city of Kaliningrad near Moscow was renamed the Korolev science city in honor of the outstanding rocketry designer who worked here. A pass in the Tien Shan, a large lunar crater and an asteroid were also named in his honor. So the name of Sergei Korolev continues to live not only on Earth, but also in space.

Based on materials from open sources

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, sports clubs 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 these newest weapons of the Wehrmacht. A thorough study of the V-2 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 Korolev’s leadership, projects for interplanetary stations, satellites for various purposes, and new spacecraft were developed. 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

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev - Soviet scientist and designer in the field of rocketry and cosmonautics, chief designer of the first launch vehicles, artificial satellites, manned spacecraft, founder of practical cosmonautics, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1958; corresponding member 1953), member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1960 -66), twice Hero of Social. Labor (1056,1961).

In 1930 he graduated from the Moscow Higher Technical School and at the same time from the Moscow School of Glider Pilots and Soaring Pilots. Since 1930 in the Central Design Bureau at the plant named after. V. R. Menzhinsky, then to TsAGI. He created a number of glider designs (Koktebel, Red Star, etc.). In 1932-33 Head of the Jet Propulsion Study Group, 1933-38 at the Jet Research Institute (chief engineer, deputy head of the institute, head of the cruise missile department, head of the rocket vehicle group). Developed a number of aircraft projects. He built the RP-318-1 rocket glider with a liquid propellant engine. He was unreasonably repressed in 1938-44. was imprisoned: first in Kolyma, then, from 1940, in the regime design bureau (TsKB √29 NKVD) in the brigade of A.N. Tupolev, and in 1942. transferred to the security design bureau of V.P. Glushko in Kazan, where he worked until 1946 as deputy. chief designer of liquid rocket boosters for combat aircraft.

Since 1946, chief designer of rocket and space technology. Under the leadership of Korolev, the world's first artificial Earth satellite was launched (1957) and the world's first spacecraft with a man (Yu. A. Gagarin) on board was launched into orbit (1961). Korolev, as chief designer, provided general technical supervision of the work on the first space programs and initiated the development of a number of applied scientific areas that ensured further progress in the creation of launch vehicles and spacecraft. Gold medal named after. K. E. Tsiolkovsky USSR Academy of Sciences (1958). Lenin Prize (1957). Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and medals.

In 1966, the USSR Academy of Sciences established a gold medal named after. S. P. Korolev for students of higher educational institutions. Monuments to the scientist were built in Moscow, Zhitomir and other cities, memorial house-museums were created in Zhitomir, Moscow and at the Baikonur Smodrome; the Samara Aviation Institute bears his name.

The thalassoid on the Moon is named after Korolev. Urn with ashes in the Kremlin wall.

When talking about the conquest of outer space by the inhabitants of the Earth, we always mention with admiration the name of the Chief Designer of the world's first rocket and space systems, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1906-1966).

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was born on December 30 (old style) 1906 (January 12, 1907 (new style) in the city of Zhitomir, in the family of teacher Pavel Yakovlevich Korolev. However, his parents soon separated. From the age of one, Sergei lived in the city of Nezhin in the family of his maternal grandfather Nikolai Yakovlevich Moskalenko, and studied with his grandfather’s lodger, teacher L.M. Grinfeld.

In 1916, his mother Maria Nikolaevna married Kyiv engineer Grigory Mikhailovich Balanin, and came to Odessa to her husband’s new place of service. At first, the family lived on Kanatnaya Street, in house No. 12, corner of Grecheskaya. This house has not survived. In its place, in the pre-war years, a school building was built (now the Odessa Pedagogical College of the South Ukrainian Pedagogical University).

In September 1917, Sergei entered the first grade of the third Odessa men's gymnasium (Uspenskaya, 1). A certificate has been preserved: “This was given with the proper signature and the application of the official seal of the gymnasium stating that Pavel Yakovlevich Korolev is indeed a full-time teacher at the women’s gymnasium of the first society of teachers in Kiev: this certificate was issued for submission to the pedagogical council of the 3rd Odessa gymnasium for the subject exemption of P.Ya. Korolev’s son from his first marriage, Sergei Korolev, a 1st grade student of the above-mentioned gymnasium, from paying for the right to study.”

The building of the 3rd Odessa Gymnasium has survived to this day (now the Odessa Institute of Internal Affairs is located there).

School studies did not last long. The turbulent events of the civil war, intervention, and the struggle for Soviet power in the south made their own adjustments, and Sergei continued his studies in the upper grades of elementary school instead of the closed gymnasium (Pushkinskaya St., 18, anthem. Irriadi, now it is the Higher Vocational School No. 26). Only the final triumph of Soviet power in Odessa led to the streamlining of education and Odessa schoolchildren were able to continue their studies.

In 1922, Sergei Korolev entered construction and professional school No. 1, which was located in house No. 18 on the street. Staroportofrankovskaya street, in the building of the former 2nd Mariinsky gymnasium.

During the war, this building was burned by the occupiers and restored after the war. The memorial plaque indicates that in 1922-24. Hero of Socialist Labor S.P. Korolev studied here twice.

In 1918, when Sergei’s stepfather Grigory Mikhailovich Balanin was appointed head of the power plant of the Odessa port, the family lived in the port near the power plant building. Here Seryozha often visited friends with whom he studied at a vocational school. He was very friendly with his brother and sister Vincentini, Lyalya and Yura, and often visited them in house No. 66 on the street. Novoselsky. Subsequently, Ksenia Maksimilyanovna Vicentini (Lala) became his wife.

Attaching great importance to physical development, S. Korolev is engaged in athletic gymnastics in the gym, which was then located in the Fish Building of the New Bazaar, two blocks from the construction and vocational school.

After graduating from vocational school, Sergei Korolev undergoes an internship, which consisted of repairing the roof of the main building of the Odessa Medical Institute on the street. Olgievskaya, 4, (Akademika Pavlova).

During his years of study at the construction and professional school, Sergei Korolev became ill with aviation. At the beginning, he spent a lot of time with the pilots and mechanics of the HYDRO-3 air squad, which was based in the port waters, in the grain harbor. The headquarters of this unit was located on the street. Lamb, 10 (OMU-3).

Then he became a member of the OAVUK-Society of Aviation and Aeronautics of Ukraine and Crimea. The society occupied premises in the former mansion of Angelo Anatra on the street. Pushkinskaya, 29.

Before the revolution, people associated with aviation often visited this house. The clever merchant Angelo Anatra gave money to the first Russian pilot M.N. Efimov for a trip to the French aviation school. Efimov barely managed to break free from financial dependence on a clever philanthropist. He paid the penalty and terminated the enslaving contract. It was even more difficult for another pioneer of Russian aviation, A.A. Vasiliev, to break the agreement with Anatra. The famous athlete Sergei Isaevich Utochkin found it even more difficult to break up with Anatra, which took away his strength, health, wife, and son. Anatra was one of the first aircraft manufacturers in Russia.

It was to this house that Sergei Korolev brought his first design for an aircraft - the K-5 glider. 12 sheets of drawings and an explanatory note were presented to him in July 1924. According to some recollections, the meeting of the ATO-Aviation Technical Society OAVUK, which adopted the project, took place in the “grotto” of the Anatra mansion (a corner room on the second floor, which had original decoration).

Sergey Korolev was involved not only in design at OAVUK. Almost from the first days of joining the OAVUK, he has been a lecturer and instructor, the leader of the OAVUK circle in the Odessa port. This is stated in the certificate issued to him by the Regional Department of the OAVUK.

In August 1924, Sergei left to enter the Kiev Polytechnic Institute.

In October 1924, Sergei Korolev came to Odessa for a few days to stay with friends.

• “I’m looking forward to Odessa. After all, it was here that I lived the most golden years of a person’s life...”
  (from a letter from S.P. Korolev to his mother. October 1929. Trip to the Lenin farm).

He came to Odessa almost every year until 1938.

He graduated from the Moscow Higher Technical School in 1930. From the same year, senior engineer of the Central Aerodynamic Institute, from 1933, deputy director of the Jet Research Institute, head of the department of rocket aircraft. During the Great Patriotic War, deputy chief engine designer at an experimental design bureau. Under Korolev's leadership, ballistic and geophysical rockets, the first artificial Earth satellites and artificial solar satellites, satellites for various purposes (Electron, Molniya-1, Kosmos, Zond and others) were created. Designer of the Vostok and Voskhod spacecraft, on which manned space flights and spacewalks were carried out for the first time in history.

The last time he visited his hometown was many years later. In 1959, while on vacation with his wife N.I. Korolev, the Chief Designer of rocket and space systems of the Soviet Union, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician S.P. Korolev, took a cruise along the Crimean-Caucasian line. While staying in the port of Odessa, the academician personally got acquainted with the progress of work on the construction of floating stations for tracking artificial earth satellites on board the ships "Krasnodar" and "Ilyichevsk". To the city, according to N.I. Koroleva, Sergei Pavlovich did not come in either that time or in other years.

Work, truly, cosmic overloads did not allow the academician to revisit the city of his youth. Until his death, Sergei Pavlovich corresponded with his friends.

Death in January 1966 severed these ties. Designer of rocket space systems, founder of practical cosmonautics, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Lenin Prize laureate, is buried near the Kremlin wall.

Awards and titles

• Twice Hero of Socialist Labor.
• He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Badge of Honor and medals.
• Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
• Lenin Prize laureate.
• Honorary citizen of the city of Korolev. Science city Korolev, Moscow region (renamed in 1996 from “Kaliningrad”). The central avenue of this city also bears the name of Korolev.

• Following the stage from Butyrka prison to Kolyma, Korolev spent some time in Novocherkassk prison.
• Returning from Kolyma to Moscow, Korolev did not get on the Indigirka steamship in Magadan (due to all the seats being occupied). This saved Korolev’s life: while traveling from Magadan to Vladivostok, the steamship Indigirka was caught in a storm and sank off the island of Hokkaido.
• Soon after the war, the British demonstrated the launch of a German V-2 rocket (the launch was carried out by German specialists). At the direction of the leadership, Korolev arrived under a false name, under the guise of a captain-artilleryman of the Soviet Army. But they forgot to provide him with the awards that front-line officers had. And representatives of British intelligence became very interested in this “captain”.
• Korolev were the first in the world to implement:
  • launch of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space
  • launching an artificial earth satellite into space,
  • launching a satellite into space with a living creature - the dog Laika,
  • launching a ballistic missile from a submarine.
• Korolev is the only person in the history of the USSR who received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor without being rehabilitated (the title was awarded on April 20, 1956, and rehabilitated on April 18, 1957).
• During his lifetime, Korolev’s name was considered secret. It was not mentioned either in the news during the launch of Sputnik or during Gagarin’s flight. Nevertheless, after his death, streets began to be named after Korolev, monuments were erected to him, and he himself was buried near the Kremlin wall. Soviet propaganda spoke of him as a brilliant scientist, the founder of astronautics, but kept silent about the fact of his arrest.

  In 1966, the USSR Academy of Sciences established a gold medal named after S.P. Korolev “For outstanding achievements in the field of rocket and space technology.” Scholarships named after S.P. Korolev were established for students of higher educational institutions. Monuments to the scientist were erected in Zhitomir, Moscow, Baikonur, and other cities, and memorial house-museums were created. The Samara State Aerospace University, a city in the Moscow region, a street in Odessa and streets in many other cities, two research vessels, a high mountain peak in the Pamirs, a pass in the Tien Shan, an asteroid, a thalassoid on the Moon bear his name.

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 an athlete-glider pilot.

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 his thesis - the 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 to perform aerobatic maneuvers and, in particular, a 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.

By 1938, his department had developed designs for liquid-propelled cruise and long-range ballistic missiles, aircraft missiles for firing at air and ground targets, and solid-fuel anti-aircraft 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 of the Supreme Court of 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 at the Maldyak gold mine of the Western Mining Directorate 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 Aviation Plant No. 16 (now the Open Joint-Stock Company "Kazan Engine-Building Production Association" /JSC KMPO/), where work was carried out on missile engines of new types for the purpose of using them in aviation. Here S.P. Korolev, with his characteristic enthusiasm, devotes himself to the idea of ​​​​the practical use of rocket engines to improve 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 rocket launch group. He was involved in improving the technical characteristics of the Pe-2 dive bomber, the first flight of which with a functioning 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 it is not a creative impulse that causes anger, 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 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, before his arrest, the director of the Moscow Aviation plant. 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 business!” 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 off 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 my father transferred to the infirmary and forced the criminals to share their rations. And soon the order came to send my dad to Moscow to reconsider 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 Special Design Bureau No. 1 (OKB-1), created in Kaliningrad near Moscow, to develop long-range ballistic missiles, and 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 in missile weapons, was to create 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 naval version, the 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, a combat launch station (Angara facility) was built in 1958-1959 near the village of Plesetsk (Arkhangelsk region, present-day 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, with S.P. Korolev appointed chief designer and director.

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 the Earth to another cosmic body, “symbolically” delivering the pennant of the Soviet Union to the Moon (from the impact When the satellite with the pennant struck the surface, it instantly turned into gas), Luna-3 was the first to photograph the far side of the Moon (invisible from Earth).

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 spacecraft "Vostok-1", he realized 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 of various specialties: a ship commander, a flight engineer and a 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 cosmonauts could stay for a long time 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 film)

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 Vasilyevich 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 in his book: “Laparotomy (opening the abdominal cavity) showed the presence of a fixed malignant tumor growing into the rectum and pelvic wall. With great difficulty, we managed to isolate the tumor with an electric knife 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 of a 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 he was the director of the Chisinau School of Viticulture and Winemaking for fifteen years and received a noble title. His son he called Maximilian. My mother is Vincentini Ksenia Maximilianovna. She did not change this surname and bore this name all her life...

When my dad was arrested, I was only three years old. Mom, of course, said that she would intercede for her husband, but the family council decided that she did not have the right to do this, because she had a small child, and her father’s mother, Maria Nikolaevna, would intercede. 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.