Korolev, Sergei | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Soviet officials portrayed him as being the person who single-handedly invented the first long-range ballistic missiles, rocket launchers for spacecraft, and the artificial satellite. Russians were also told that Korolev alone was responsible for Gagarin's successful space flight. The collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1980s and early 1990s made possible more realistic information about Korolev's career. Although he is still considered an important force in the Russian space program, it is now known that he was influenced by the ideas of interplanetary flight put forth by the Russian inventor Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935; see entry). Korolev also worked closely with other scientists to train the scientists and engineers who later formed the core of Russia's space program.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was born on December 30, 1906 (January 12, 1907, in the Gregorian calendar used in Russia), in the Ukranian town of Zhitomir. As a young child he wanted to be a pilot, and by age seventeen he had designed a glider (an aircraft that relies on air currents to stay aloft). He attended the Kiev Polytechnic Institute before enrolling at the Moscow Higher Technical University. While studying at the university Korolev designed and constructed a series of gliders, the most advanced being a glider called the SK-4, which he made for flying in the stratosphere (outside Earth's atmosphere).

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