Thorny Paths of Scientists

Sergi Korolev

SERGI KOROLEV

(1906-1966)

Sergi Korolev was born on 30th December 1906 at Zhitomir in Ukraine (then a part of U.S.S.R). His father was a school teacher. Beacause his parents were divorced soon after his birth, He had a traumatic childhood. He was brought up initially by his maternal grandfather and after 1917, by his stepfather who funded his education. At the time of divorce of his parents, Korolev was informed by his mother that his father had died and it is later

that he learnt that his father had lived until 1929. The father and son never met each other after the family break-up although his father had requested his mother for a meeting with his son.

In 1922, after completing his school education he got admission in Odessa Professional School. Here he got professional training in consutruction engineering. During this training he developed a fascination for aviation. So in 1924 he Joined Kier Polytechnic Institute for specialized training in aviation. In 1927, he started working in the aircraft industry. Side by side he continued to pursue his higher education in Bauman Technological School Moscow. Here he built an airplane and wrote a theisis about it under the guidance of A.N.Typolev. He graduated in 1930 and received a pilot's diploma from the Moscow Summer School.

The work of K.Triolkovsky had a great impression on Korolev and it inspired him to devote himself to rocket and space technology. So in 1933 he shifted to the newly created Institute for Jet Research and continued to work on problems of Jet and Rocket propulsion.

He made an in depth study of the subject and wrote a book "Rocket Flight in the Stratosphere" in 1934. He made significant coutribution in the design of the first rocket system to orbit the moon and take photographs of t h e r e v e r s e s i d e , t h e

development of first soviet communication satellite, the design of automatic Lunar Stations to ensure soft landing of research instruments on the Moon.

In 1931 Korolev married Xenia Unicentini, a woman he had been courting for the last seven years. On 10th April 1935, Karolev's wife gave birth to their daughter Natasha. So next year they moved out of his parent's house and went into their own

apartment. As both husband and wife were career persons so their marriage began to break up. Another reason was that Korolev had an affair with y o u n g e r w o m e n N i n a Kotenkova. Korolev married Nina in 1949.

Korolev was made Deputy Chief of the newly created Jet Propulsion Research Institute headed by a military engineer. But due to professional rivalry Korolev was accused of deliberately slowing the work of the research Institute as a result of which he was arrested. He was tried and sentenced to 10 years in Gulag camp . On June 27,1944, Korolav, along with Tupolev and others was discharged ,although the charges against him were not dropped until 1957.

He joined the design bureau as deputy designer under Glushko in the rocket design . In 1945 he was commissioned into the Red Army with a rank of colonel. Along with other experts he flew to East Germany to study their rocket programme. Meanwhile Stalin decided to make rocket and missile development a national priority and a new institute was created for this purpose the NII-88 near Moscow.

On April 19,1957, Korolev was fully rehabilitated as the government acknowledged that his sentence was unjust. In 1957, during the international geophysical year, the concept of launching a satellite began to appear in American press. Korolev's group followed the western press and they thought it was possible to beat America in this field. So he was finally able to win support from USSR government on the plea that theirs should be the first country to launch a satellite. The actual development of Sputnik was performed in less than a month. This was a very simple design consisting of a polished metal sphere, a transmitter, thermal measuring instruments and batteries. Korolev personally managed the assembly. Finally on October 4,1957 the satellite was successfully launched and was placed in Orbit . Nikita Khuruchev the supreme Soviet leader was pleased with the success and decided that it should be followed by a new achievement on the 40th anniversary of October Revolution . On 3rd November Sputnik -2 was launched with a dog in it. As there was no mechanism designed in this vehicle to bring the dog back to earth, so the dog died after about 6 hours in space due to heat exhaustion.

B u t s p u t n i k - 3 w h i c h w a s instrument laden spacecraft was sent in to orbit on 15th May 1958. The tape recorder that was to store the data failed after the launch. So Korolev now turned his attention to reaching the moon. The first three lunar probe launched in 1958 all failed. This was attributed to lack of funding and political pressure to hasten the launch to beat U.S.A. After gaining approval from the government, modified version of R-7 was used to launch Yuri Alexeevich Gagarin into orbit on 12th April 1961- the first human in space and Earth orbit. He returned to Earth via a parachute after ejecting at an altitude of 7 kilometers. Knorolev played an impotant role in this mission right from planning to its successful execution.

Korolev planned to move forward Soyuz programme but he was directed by Khrushchev to cheaply produce more "first" for the piloted programme including a multi-manned flight for the moon race. Korolev's staff started designing the Nl-rocket in 1961 using highly efficient NK-33 liqiud fuel rocket engine. He was also working the design for Soyuz manned spacecraft as well as the Luna vehicle that would soft land on the Moon. But that was not to be as Korolev suffered his first heart attack on 3rd. December 1960. It was also discovered that he was suffering from a kidney disorder a

condition he must have developed during his detention in Soviet prison camps. He was warned by doctors that if he continued to work as intensely as he had, he would not live long. By 1962 Korolev's health started deteriorating and he died on 16th January 1966 during a surgical operation. Awards and Honours :

Korolev was twice awarded Hero of Socialist labour in 1956 and 1961.

He was made member of the Academy of Sciences in 1958.

He was given Lenin Prize in 1971.

He was awarded the Order to Lenin three times. Nobel Prize committee attempted to award Korolev but was turned down by Khrushchev. So he suffered the fate of many other scientists- a total absence of public

acknowledgment of the major part he played

Not until his death was he identified by Russians as the Chief designer of their Space Research Programme.