Space Rocket History #91 – The Death of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev – Part 3

Posted on December 4, 2014 by spac9750

Around noon on January 14th, Boris Chertok was alone in his office studying a folder of classified mail that had accumulated during the past few days. He had asked not to be disturbed. Suddenly his subordinate ran in and shouted, “Sergey Pavlovich died!”
Chertok responded “Are you out of your mind? Which Sergey Pavlovich?”
“Ours, our Sergey Pavlovich Korolev! His wife telephoned from the hospital!”
Chertok stood absolutely dumbfounded, having no idea what to do next. This can’t be! This really shouldn’t be happening! A few seconds later he called the Kremlin for verification.

Monument in Moscow

Monument in Korolyov

Monument in Baykonur

Nov 26

Space Rocket History #90 – The Death of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev – Part 2

Posted on November 26, 2014 by spac9750

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Sergei Korolev’s life paralleled in many ways the life of Wernher Von Braun. Like Von Braun, as a young man, Sergei Korolev was inspired to dedicate his life to the technology for space exploration after becoming acquainted with the work of a great space pioneer: Hermann Oberth in the case of von Braun, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the case of Korolev. Both began their careers in space development through serious study, participation in amateur rocket societies, and then support from the military…

Korolev, Kurchatov, Keldysh

Yuri and Sergei

Vostok 1 Lauch

Nov 20

Space Rocket History #89 – The Death of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev – Part 1

Posted on November 20, 2014 by spac9750

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His power, influence, and responsibilities during the 1950s and 60s were all encompassing. Not only was he in charge of all space-related issues, he was also in charge of some of the design of rockets for military purposes as well. He oversaw the design and testing of communications and surveillance satellites, too. Although he delegated responsibility for each program to trusted designers in separate engineering bureaus, his workload was enormous. He was the responsible for all the programs including the Soviet equivalent of NASA, which was called the Ministry for Medium Machine Building.

Sergei as a Child

Korolev in his 20s

Korolev in a Glider

Jul 03

Space Rocket History #69 – Zond 3, Venera 3, and Asterix

Posted on July 3, 2014 by spac9750

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The Zond program was one of two lunar exploration programs conducted by the Soviet Union to investigate the Moon and its vicinity. The program began in 1964 and ended in 1979. The early Zond’s 1-3 were originally designed for planetary exploration, while the latter Zonds (4-8) were sent on circum lunar flights. Additionally, the latter Zond vehicles were of a totally different in design. They were in fact automated versions of the manned Soyuz spacecraft…