Engineering & invention · Government & military
Sergei Korolev
Soviet rocket-program chief designer
Also known as Sergey Korolyov · S. P. Korolev
Photograph · Image credit
Who they are
Sergei Korolev was the chief designer directing the Soviet development effort behind Sputnik. His organization brought together launch-vehicle work, satellite design, production and ground operations. The October 1957 satellite launch is presented as a collective engineering achievement, with Korolev’s leadership explaining how the program moved from proposed capability to an operating spacecraft.
He represents program leadership in the emergence of artificial orbital spaceflight.
Selected contributions
- Directed the development organization responsible for Sputnik’s launch preparation.Source ↗
In the timeline
- Oct 4, 1957Sputnik 1 reaches Earth orbit
Biography sources & portrait credit
- Korolev’s Triple Play: Sputniks 1, 2, and 3 ↗NASA History
Portrait credit
Unknown photographer / Mos.ru. CC BY 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Photograph. Cropped to 4:5, resized to 320 × 400 and converted to WebP.
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