Personal life of Sergei Queen. Sergei Korolev: secrets of personal life

This man survived so that, having passed through thorns, he would be the first to lead humanity to the stars. His name - Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Probably, there was no other such person on Earth before him who would love the sky so much. And women.

Love and space

Even the first kiss with the girl of his dreams happened on his roof. He lived then in Odessa. At Xenia Vincentini, or at Lyali, as everyone called her, there were always many fans. Earring Korolev is just one of them. But he tried to do everything so that she became only his girlfriend: he walked around her upside down, and swam under a barge in the sea, and even on the edge of the roof of a two-story Odessa morgue he did a handstand for her. Apparently, all this made the necessary impression on Lyalya. And then, right on the roof, she finally allowed him to kiss her for the first time.

Leaving to study at the aviation department of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Seryozhka proposed to her. She replied that, although she loved him, she did not intend to marry until she had learned to earn her own money.

It turned out that he studied in Kyiv, then at the Moscow Higher Technical School in Moscow, and she in Kharkov, as a doctor. After graduation, Ksenia is assigned to work in the Donbass. Being there, Korolev again tries to get Lyalina's consent to marriage. She again refuses, citing new reason: what's the point of getting married if you still have to live apart for two or three years while you work according to distribution. And Korolev decides to get the authorities to let Ksenia go ahead of schedule. In the end, in August 1931, she becomes his wife, and soon he still takes her to Moscow ...

Sergei Korolev with his wife Xenia Vincentini. 1932 Photo: RIA Novosti

But here's the mystery: as soon as Korolev achieves what he dreamed of all these 7 years, he quickly loses interest in his wife and begins to get involved in other women. They told the following story: "Once Lyalya was cleaning Sergey's jacket. And suddenly ... two tickets to Grand Theatre. Korolyov did not say anything about them. So, Lyalya decided, she would go with some lady. And Lyalya had an admirer from high-ranking military men. And to persuade him to take her to the Bolshoi was not worth the trouble. The two couples clashed during the intermission. Sergei was with a beautiful brunette. Seeing his wife, Korolev pulled away from his beauty, like a cat from the table, and immediately began to make excuses, they say: "They accidentally offered tickets ... It was inconvenient to refuse ... Where will we meet after the performance?" - "Why should we meet?" - asked Xenia. - They will see me off. And looked at her soldier. Here Korolev could not stand it: "No. We will go together!" Where he put his lady is unknown. But he took his wife from the theater himself ... "

Such adventures of her husband brought Xenia to the point that in the spring of 1948 she poured out all her feelings in a letter to her mother Korolev: “You know the whole story of our love well. for me to survive, and, despite the remaining feeling of affection and some kind of love for S., I firmly decided ... to leave him to continue his life under his favorite slogan "Let everyone live as he wants ..."

Sergei Korolev and Ksenia Vincentini met and were "married" for a quarter of a century, and lived together for some 8 years, and even then in fits and starts. Their daughter Natasha, who was under the influence of her mother, learned about the "treason of the pope" at the age of 12. She tore into small pieces all his photographs, which came to hand, and declared that she did not want to see him again. The crack between daughter and father remained for life. They rarely met, but most often they were like strangers. The Queen was not at her wedding either. In turn, according to the famous chronicler space age Yaroslava Golovanova When Korolev called her from Baikonur to wish her a happy birthday, she hung up. And he sat and cried...

Loneliness

The second wife, probably, could subscribe to many of the pain-filled words of the first.

To get an idea of ​​how he struck up a relationship with the weaker sex and how he behaved further, we will use the memories of the second wife, Nina. She told Yaroslav Golovanov about it with all the details. So: “In the spring of 1947, at NII-88, I was the only “Englishwoman”, the rest of the translators were “Germans.” One day the boss says: “Korolev has accumulated a lot of English magazines. Go, he will show you what to translate..."

I'm coming. The secretary says, "He's busy." I hear him talking on the phone. The conversation ended, and the door of the office opened slightly: "Are you coming to me? Please ... Sit down ..." He introduced himself: "Korolev Sergey Pavlovich."

Nina Ivanovna, I say. - An unemployed translator.

That's what I understood, - Korolev smiled and took out a pile of English and American magazines. - Please translate this article.

I understood that I had made a bad translation, because I did not know the meaning of purely technical terms ... "Yes, really bad," said Korolev. They gave me an engineer with whom I could translate the article correctly. Again I go to the Queen. And so he began to call me more and more often. Somehow I put a translation in front of him, he reads, and he himself ... takes my hand. I take my hand away. He paused. Asks:

What are you doing on Sunday?

While I don't have any plans...

Do you mind relaxing together?

What do you mean?

Well... let's go to a restaurant... let's dance...

I don't like restaurants, but let's go, - I say, - just somewhere far away from the city ...

His driver took us to Khimki. We walked along the embankment near the River Station. Then we had lunch in a restaurant. We drank a little. And suddenly he began to tell me so frankly about his life, about Germany, about the family to which he decided not to return anymore ... I was even at a loss: after all, we met quite recently ...

When we returned to Podlipki, he asked where to take me. She named the address. To our great surprise, it turned out that we live not only in the same house, but also in the same entrance: my mother's apartment is on the first floor, and the Queen is on the second. We went up to him. What now to dissemble: I stayed with him that first our evening. And, as it turned out, for life ... I was 27. He was 40.

What happened next?

The wife has changed, but Korolev is again on indefinite business trips, and he is again tormented by loneliness. More than once, as if apologizing, Sergei Pavlovich writes to his new wife about his difficulties and experiences. He writes that he has no one else to tell about this, since the most close friend and her friend! It is no coincidence that he always adds the words: "After all, I have no one to talk about this with, except for you." Apparently, his new wife is starting to get bored with his "spiritual outpourings" about eternal problems at work and at heart. And with new woman whom he loves so much, feels lonely. In general, geniuses are most often unlucky in their personal lives. I remember the words Natalia Nikolaevna Goncharova Pushkin: "And how tired I am of you with your poems!" And Korolev writes: "Well, I can't help you, my friend, not to write and pour out my soul ..." The eternal tragedy of geniuses !!!

Dossier

S. Korolev was born on January 12, 1907. Under his leadership, the Study Group jet propulsion(GIRD) August 17, 1933 launched the first Soviet rocket. Then there was the Reactive Research Institute (RNII), then - the arrest. He was accused of "wrecking as part of an anti-Soviet organization." First they gave 10 years. Then, in the 40th, the term was reduced by 2 years. He sat out working in the "Tupolev sharaga" - design bureau behind barbed wire. For work that had "important defense significance", him - according to a personal letter Beria to Stalin- released early in August 44th. In September 1945, Korolev was sent to Germany to study the experience of Nazi engineers. Returning in January 1947, he quickly and successfully carried out the design and testing of his own missiles, which immediately increased the power of the USSR Armed Forces many times over.

In 1957, the R-7 rocket was successfully tested, with the help of which the world's first artificial satellite Earth. On April 12, 1961, the same rocket ensured Gagarin's flight. It broke into the Universe and the first woman astronaut V. Tereshkova, And A. Leonov, who made in March 1965 the first ever exit to outer space. Unfortunately, this success was the last in the life of the great designer, in 1966 he died.

By the way

There is such a legend among astronauts: after the cremation of the body of the Queen Gagarin And Komarov begged for some of his ashes to be sent to an interplanetary station in a special container with a coat of arms Soviet Union to the moon. How was it really? Probably no one knows. Komarov died tragically. A year later, no less tragically, Gagarin passed away.

LIFE WAY

Childhood

He spent his early childhood with his grandparents in the city of Nizhyn, Chernihiv region.

Here, in 1911, Serezha saw for the first time how a pilot flew an airplane that looked like a rumbling huge bird. The impressionable boy was shocked by this sight. What he saw became the germ of Sergei Korolev's future vocation.

He received his primary education first in the Kyiv gymnasium, later in Odessa. After the closure of the gymnasium in Odessa, he studied at home.

Parents

Father Pavel Yakovlevich Korolev is a teacher of Russian literature.

Mother Maria Nikolaevna is the daughter of a Nezhin merchant, a teacher.

Stepfather Grigory Mikhailovich Balanin had a pedagogical and engineering education.

Education

In 1922 - 1924 studied at a construction school. There he became close with the pilots of the Odessa hydro detachment. The young man anxiously followed the flight of winged machines over the sea and imagined how he would rise on this miracle into the sky. Sergey all summer time helped prepare the planes for flight. Having thoroughly studied the motor, Korolev became a valuable worker who was always ready to help. Therefore, he liked all the mechanics and pilots. At the age of 17, he created and defended the first draft of the non-powered K-5 aircraft.

1924 - 1926 studied at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute at the Faculty of Aviation Engineering.

1926 - 1929 continued to study at the Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman. At the school, he designed the gliders "Koktebel" and "Firebird", showed himself as a capable aircraft designer. He boldly defended his thesis on the design of the SK-4 light aircraft. Subsequently, several SK-4 and Krasnaya Zvezda aircraft were produced according to Sergey's project. On these aircraft, test pilot V.A. Stepanchonok performed aerobatics, dead loop, at the VII All-Union glider rally in Koktebel in 1930.

Family

The first wife - Ksenia Maksimilianovna Vincentini, a surgeon, a childhood friend of S. Korolev, studied together at the Odessa construction vocational school.

The second wife is Kotenkova N.I. (1920-1999)

Activities and achievements of Sergei Korolev

In 1929, the VI All-Union glider competitions were held in the village. Koktebel. Sergei Korolev and his friend and colleague Sergei Lyushin presented a glider that was heavier than the previous ones. On it, Korolev, who was 22 years old, set a soaring record - more than 4 hours.

Before S.P. Korolev and his colleagues were given the task of creating a rocket that would rise into space. The rocket was ready for testing at the beginning of 1957. Everyone expected success. However, when the engine was started, a fire broke out and the rocket exploded.

1931 - S. Korolev and F. A. Zander in Moscow created the Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion / GIRD /. The first Soviet liquid-propellant ballistic missiles GIRD-09, GIRD-10 were created and launched in it.

1933 - the Jet Research Institute was formed. In it, S. Korolev was appointed head of the rocket aircraft department.

From 1935 to 1938 S. Korolev developed designs for anti-aircraft, with a powder engine and long-range missiles with a liquid engine.

1938 - S. Korolev was arrested and convicted. He remained in prison until 1940. Returning to Moscow, he was convicted a second time and sent to the special prison of the NKVD, later to the prison design bureau / OKB-16 / at aircraft factory No. 16 in Kazan.

During the period of imprisonment, S. Korolev designed and constructed the Pe-2 and Tu-2 bombers, was engaged in the improvement rocket engines.

In 1944, S. Korolev was released ahead of schedule, but not rehabilitated.

1946 - 195 S.P. Korolev developed long-range ballistic missiles. Intercontinental missiles R-1 with a range of 3,000 km, as well as two-stage ballistic missiles R-7 - 8,000 km, were designed and put into service.

At the same time, plans were ripening for the launch of an artificial satellite of the Earth, using the R-7 rocket. On October 4, 1957, the satellite was successfully launched, which was a grandiose event in the history of the Soviet Union.

On the basis of the R-7 rocket, three-stage launch vehicles "Vostok" and the first spaceship with a pilot aboard Vostok 1. April 12, 1961 "Vostok 1" started, piloted by Yuri Gagarin.

Interesting facts from the life of Sergei Korolev

• not only Yu.Gagarin claimed the first space flight. The cosmonauts were selected by Korolev himself. A lot was important: height, weight, health, and... the honesty of S.P. Korolev's answer to his question about the well-being of the future cosmonaut.
• in 1968, the plane with Yuri Gagarin crashed while performing a training flight. A photo of Korolev was found in the pocket of Y. Gagarin's flight jacket.
• Seagull - such a call sign was invented for the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova by Sergey Pavlovich Korolev.
• until the end of his life, the name of S.P. Korolev was classified, and in all official communications a pseudonym was used - the General Designer.

Favorite books of Sergei Korolev

S. Korolev loved mathematics, but he also read books with pleasure. In his school years, he read Gogol, Yesenin, Pushkin. "War and Peace" L. Tolstoy re-read and never ceased to admire.

Sergei Korolev's awards

1. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor
2. Three Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Badge of Honor
3. Laureate of the Lenin Prize

outlined in this article.

Sergei Korolev short biography

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev- Soviet scientist, designer, chief organizer of the production of rocket and space technology and missile weapons USSR and the founder of practical astronautics.

Born on January 12, 1907 (December 30, 1906 according to the old style) in Zhytomyr in the family of a teacher of Russian literature.

In 1922 he entered the Odessa construction vocational school, which he graduated two years later. In 1924 he entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. In 1926 he transferred to the evening department of the Moscow Higher Technical School.

Back in the early 1920s, Korolev designed his first glider. Later, gliders of his design will take part in the All-Union glider competitions, receiving high reviews. After graduating from the Moscow Higher Technical School, Korolev works at the enterprises of the aviation industry.

In 1930, Korolev defended his graduation project for a light aircraft. Tupolev himself was the scientific adviser of the young designer. After the defense, Korolev received the profession of an aeromechanical engineer.

Together with a follower of Tsiolkovsky, Friedrich Arturovich Zander, in 1931 he organized one of the first rocket organizations in the USSR - the Jet Propulsion Study Group (GIRD). Supervises the construction and flight tests of experimental missiles, develops a project for a rocket plane - a half-aircraft, half-rocket.

In 1933 he was appointed deputy head of the Jet Scientific Research Institute (RNII). Designs experimental rockets, builds a rocket plane. He makes presentations at All-Union conferences on the use of cruise missiles to study the stratosphere.

In 1938 he was groundlessly repressed and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. Initially, he is serving him in Kolyma. During the Great Patriotic War, he worked in the design bureau special regime. He was released in 1944 and the next year he was seconded to Germany, where, as part of the Technical Commission, he got acquainted with captured rocket technology.

From 1946 until the end of his life, Korolev was the Chief Designer of long-range ballistic missiles, rocket and space systems - launch vehicles "Sputnik", "Vostok" and its modifications, aircraft-ships "Vostok", "Voskhod", automatic interplanetary stations, specialized Earth satellites. Under the leadership of Korolev, in 1957 the world's first artificial Earth satellite was launched, in 1961 the first manned spacecraft Vostok was launched, and a project for the N-1 lunar transport system was prepared.

On his initiative and under his leadership, the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth and the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Gagarin, was carried out.

Sergei Korolev was an academician of the Academy of Sciences, a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1960-1966), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1961), laureate of the Lenin Prize (1957). He was awarded the Gold Medal. K.E. Tsiolkovsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958), 2 orders of Lenin, the Order of the Badge of Honor and medals.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev passed away January 14, 1966(cardiac stopped after surgery).

Personal life

Korolyov was married twice. In August 1931, he married his former classmate Xenia Maximilianovna Vincentini. In 1935, their daughter Natalia was born, but the marriage was unsuccessful and in 1948 they divorced.

The second wife is Nina Ivanovna Kotenkova (1949‑1966).

In August 1924, Sergei Korolev entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute at the aviation department of the mechanical faculty. In parallel with his studies, he was engaged in a glider circle, where he designed several aircraft. He was especially fascinated by the principles of jet propulsion and the prospects for flights into the stratosphere.

In the same years, Korolev worked as a newspaper peddler, participated as an extra in filming, repaired roofs (he mastered the craft of tiling while still at a construction vocational school).

In 1926, to continue his studies, Sergei Korolev transferred to the third year of the aeromechanical department of the mechanical faculty of the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU, now Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman).

In March 1927, he graduated from the glider school at the Moscow Higher Technical School, receiving the title of glider pilot. Sergei Korolev also studied in the aerodynamic circle named after. N. E. Zhukovsky, where he developed original gliders and light aircraft. In 1929 he designed and built the Koktebel glider (together with Sergei Lyushin) and on October 15, 1929 he flew it at the VI All-Union Gliding Competition in Koktebel. In November of the same year, he received a soaring pilot certificate, and in June 1930 he graduated from the Moscow Osoaviakhim Pilot School, having received the qualification of a "pilot".

From the fourth year of the institute, Sergei Korolev combined his studies with work. From May to November 1927, he worked in the design bureau of the State Aviation Plant No. 22 named after the 10th anniversary of October, and then in the experimental department of aircraft designer Dmitry Grigorovich at plant No. 22. From October 1928, he served as head of the center section design team of this department; in March 1929 he was transferred to the experimental department at the plant number 28, where he participated in the development of the T0M-1 torpedo bomber under the leadership of Paul Aime Richard.
In December 1929, Korolev defended his graduation project for the SK-4 light aircraft (supervised by Andrey Tupolev), and in February 1930 he received a certificate of graduation from the Moscow Higher Technical School and the qualification of "aeromechanical engineer".

After graduating from Moscow Higher Technical School, he worked as the head of a motor equipment brigade at the Central Design Bureau (TsKB) at Aviation Plant No. 39.

From March 1931, Korolev began working as a senior flight test engineer at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), where he flew with Mikhail Gromov, in particular, working on developing the first domestic autopilot.

In September 1931, Sergei Korolev took part in the organization of the Moscow Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion (GIRD) under the USSR Osoaviakhim, headed by Friedrich Zander, and in May 1932, remaining a full-time employee of TsAGI, became its head. In August 1933, in Nakhabino, near Moscow, he supervised the first in the USSR flight test of the GIRD R-1 rocket with a hybrid fuel engine, and on November 25, the GIRD-X liquid-fuel rocket. The result of his activities in the GIRD was the badge "For active defense work" awarded in December 1933 - the highest award of the Osoaviakhim of the USSR.

In 1933-1938, Sergei Korolev worked at the Reactive Research Institute of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry (since 1937 - NII-3 of the People's Commissariat defense industry): deputy head of the institute, senior engineer of the cruise missile sector, head of the sector, head of the department, head of the group, senior engineer of the group. During this period, he developed a number of aircraft projects, including projects for a guided cruise missile (flying in 1939).

In 1938, Sergei Korolev was falsely accused and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served his sentence in Kolyma. In September 1940, thanks to the petition of Andrei Tupolev, Korolev was transferred to the Special Technical Bureau under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (TsKB-29). While in prison, he worked as an aeromechanical engineer at the Tupolev Design Bureau (KB), which developed the Tu-2 dive bomber project.

In July 1941, together with TsKB-29, he was evacuated to Omsk, where until November 1942 he worked as a design bureau technologist and assistant head of the assembly shop at aircraft plant No. 166 (now PO Polet).

In November 1942, Korolev was transferred to Kazan to Aircraft Engine Plant No. 16, where in the experimental design bureau of the NKVD special department under the leadership of Valentin Glushko he worked as a chief engineer - chief designer of a group of rocket launchers, dealing with the problem of equipping serial combat aircraft with liquid rocket boosters.

On July 27, 1944, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the early release of Sergei Korolev with the removal of a criminal record.

From September 1945 to January 1947, Korolev was part of a group of Soviet specialists in Germany, where he studied German captured rocket technology. He worked first at the Rabe Special Institute in Bleicherode as head of the Shot group, and later as first deputy head, chief engineer of the Nordhausen Institute.

In August 1946, Korolev was appointed chief designer of the first Soviet long-range ballistic missile (BRDD), as well as head of the special design bureau of the Research Institute No. 88 of the USSR Ministry of Arms (the city of Kaliningrad, Moscow Region, now the city of Korolev). In 1947, he carried out the technical supervision of the first launch of the captured A-4 rocket at the Kapustin Yar test site. In 1948, the first launch of the R-1 BRDD was carried out.

In May 1950, after the reorganization of NII-88, Sergei Korolev was appointed head and chief designer of the experimental design bureau (OKB), and in September 1951 he was additionally assigned the duty of deputy director of NII-88.
From the end of 1947 until 1952, he was a part-time teacher at the Department of Jet Weapons at the Moscow Higher Technical School.
In 1956-1966, he was the head and chief designer of OKB-1, separated from NII-88 into an independent enterprise (now the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation named after S.P. Korolev).

Under the direct leadership of Sergei Korolev, the creation of the country's nuclear-missile shield was ensured (the development and commissioning of the first domestic long-range missiles on high-boiling, low-boiling and solid fuel components), the exploration of outer space began (the first high-altitude geophysical rockets, the first artificial satellite of the Earth, the first human space flight - Yuri Gagarin, the first scientific satellites "Electron", automatic stations to the Moon, Mars, Venus, the first domestic communications satellite "Molniya-1", photo observation satellite "Zenit"). Work was carried out under the programs of manned spacecraft "Vostok", "Voskhod", work began on manned lunar programs, design and exploratory developments were carried out on manned complexes for flights to the planets of the solar system and other projects.

As the initiator of the creation and chairman of the Council of Chief Designers, in 1945-1965, Korolev provided technical guidance and coordination of the work of enterprises and organizations of the country in rocket, rocket-space and space projects, developed with the leading role of the enterprise led by him.

Sergei Korolev was Doctor of Technical Sciences, full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958), member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1960-1966), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1961), laureate of the Lenin Prize (1957), was awarded two Orders of Lenin (1956). , 1961), the Order of the Badge of Honor (1945), medals.

Korolyov was married twice. First wife (1931-1948) - Xenia Vincentini. In 1935, their daughter Natalya was born, but this marriage broke up. Second wife (1949-1966) - Nina Kotenkova.

Sergei Korolev died on January 14, 1966 (heart stopped after surgery). The urn with his ashes is installed in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.

In 1966, the USSR Academy of Sciences established a gold medal named after him "For outstanding work in the field of rocket and space technology."

Samara National Research University bears the name of Korolev, Rocket and Space Corporation (RKK) Energia, the science city of Korolev in the Moscow Region (renamed in 1996 from Kaliningrad), the central avenue of this city. Streets in many cities of the CIS are named after Academician Korolyov. Two research vessels, a crater on Mars, a crater on reverse side Luna, asteroid 1855, high mountain peak in the Pamirs, pass in the Tien Shan.

In Moscow, in the house where Korolev lived in 1959-1966, in 1975 the memorial Korolev House Museum was opened. There are memorial houses-museums in Zhytomyr and Baikonur.

Exactly 50 years ago, on January 14, 1966, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, an outstanding Soviet scientist, designer and founder of practical cosmonautics, passed away. This outstanding domestic figure forever entered as the creator of Soviet rocket and space technology, which helped to 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 supervision of Korolev and on his initiative that the launches of the first artificial Earth satellite and the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin were carried out. 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 in a glider, but he didn't crash. He could well have been shot as an "enemy of the people", but he was sentenced to prison term. He could have died already in the camps, but he survived. Should have drowned on a ship in pacific ocean, but missed the ship, which crashed 5 days later. This great scientist survived in order to literally go through the thorns to the stars and be the first to bring humanity into space. Probably, there was no other such person on the planet who would love the sky so strongly and devotedly.

Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov was born on January 12, 1907 (December 30, 1906 according to the old style) in the city of Zhytomyr in the family of a teacher of Russian literature Pavel Yakovlevich Korolyov and the daughter of a Nizhyn merchant Maria Nikolaevna Moskalenko. He was three years old when the family broke up, and by the decision of his mother, 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 manage to finish 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 teaching, also had an engineering education.

While still studying at school, Sergei Korolev was distinguished by exceptional abilities and a great craving for aviation technology that was new for that time. When a detachment of seaplanes was formed in Odessa in 1921, the future rocket designer became seriously interested in aeronautics. He made acquaintance with the members of this detachment and made his first seaplane flights, deciding to become a pilot. At the same time, his passion for the sky alternated with his work in a school production workshop, where the future designer learned to work at a lathe, he turned details of a very complex shape and configuration. 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 get a secondary education right away, he did not have the conditions for this. Only in 1922, a construction vocational school was opened in Odessa, in which at that time they taught the best teachers. 15-year-old Sergey entered it. A naturally excellent memory allowed Korolev to memorize entire pages of text. The future designer studied very diligently, one might say, enthusiastically. His classroom teacher she told her mother about him: "A guy with a king in his head." In construction vocational school he studied from 1922 to 1924, studying in parallel in many circles and in various courses.

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

In 1924, Sergei Korolev entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute with a degree 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 Faculty. The young student always studied with his usual industriousness, he spent a lot of time studying on his own, visiting the technical library. Especially popular in those years were the lectures of the young 35-year-old aircraft designer Tupolev, who gave students an introductory course on aircraft construction. Even then, Tupolev noticed the outstanding abilities of Sergei and later 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, an experienced glider pilot. Starting from the 4th year, he combined his studies and work in the design bureau. From 1927 to 1930 he took part in the All-Union gliding competitions, which were held on the territory of the Crimea near Koktebel. Here Korolev flew himself, and also presented models of his gliders, including the SK-1 Koktebel and SK-3 Krasnaya Zvezda.

Of great importance for the life of Sergei Korolev was his meeting with Tsiolkovsky, which took place in Kaluga in 1929 on the way from Odessa to Moscow. This meeting predetermined the future life path scientist and designer. The conversation with Konstantin Eduardovich made an indelible impression on the young specialist. “Tsiolkovsky shocked me then with his unshakable belief in the possibility of space navigation,” the designer recalled many years later, “I left him with one single thought: to build rockets and fly them. The whole meaning of life for me was one thing - to break through to 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 - the Jet Propulsion Study Group, which he would head as early as 1932. Under the leadership of Sergei Korolev, the first launches were carried out Soviet missiles on the GIRD-9 hybrid engine, which took place in August 1933, as well as on the GIRD-X liquid fuel in November of the same year. After the Leningrad Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) and the Moscow GIRD merged at the end of 1933 and the Jet Research Institute (RNII) was created, Sergei Korolev was appointed its deputy director for science, and starting from 1934, he became the head department of rocket aircraft.

In 1934, the first printed work of Sergei Korolev 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 building a rocket plane as closely as possible, but his ideas were not destined to come true then. In the autumn of 1937, the wave of repressions that swept through 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. Supreme Court THE USSR. In the list, he was in the first category, which meant: the recommended punishment by the NKVD was execution. The list was approved personally by Stalin, so that the verdict could be considered practically approved. However, Korolev was "lucky", he was sentenced to 10 years in the camps. Prior to that, he spent a year in Butyrka prison. According to some reports, the future space explorer was subjected to severe torture and beatings, as a result of which his jaw was broken. The designer came to 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 at " general works". December 2, 1939 Korolev was sent to Vladlag.

Only on March 2, 1940, he again ended up in Moscow, was retried, this time he was sentenced to 8 years in camps, sent to a new place of detention - to the Moscow special prison of the NKVD TsKB-29, in which, under the guidance of his teacher Tupolev, he took part in the development of the Tu-2 and Pe-2 bombers, at the same time initiating work on the creation of a guided air 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 factory 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 already knew and appreciated him well, did not let him go, saying: “And who will build the planes?”

Sergei Pavlovich was released ahead of schedule only in July 1944 on the personal instructions of Stalin, after which he continued to work in Kazan for another year. A prominent specialist in the field of aviation equipment L. L. Kerber, who worked at TsKB-29, noted that Korolev was a cynic, skeptic and pessimist and looked rather gloomily into the future, attributing to the designer the phrase "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, did not give up, did not curse or scold anyone. The designer simply did not have time for this, he was well aware that anger would not cause a creative impulse in him, but only his oppression.

After the completion 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 rocket V-2 (V-2). In August 1946, the designer began work in Kaliningrad, near Moscow, where he became the chief designer of long-range missiles and head of department No. 3 at NII-88 for their development.

The first task that was set by the government 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 range than the V-2 - up to 3 thousand km. In 1948, Korolev conducts flight and design tests of the first Soviet ballistic missile R-1 (analogous to V-2) and in 1950 puts the missile into service. Over the next few years, he is working on various modifications of this rocket. During only one year in 1954, he completed work on the R-5 rocket, outlining five of its possible modifications at once. 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 also became more and more clear-cut.

Work on the R-7 intercontinental two-stage rocket was completed in 1956. It was a missile with a range of 8,000 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 on stable fuel components (mobile ground and sea-based); the designer became a real pioneer in these new and very important directions in the development of missile weapons.

On October 4, 1957, a rocket designed by Sergei Korolev launched the first artificial satellite in history into earth orbit. From that day on, the era of practical astronautics begins, and Korolev becomes 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 of which was the first cosmonaut of the planet Yuri Gagarin. With this flight, which would not have happened without Korolev, the era of manned space exploration begins.

Also, since 1959, Sergei Korolev led the program for the exploration of the moon. Within the framework of this program, natural satellite Several spacecraft were sent to Earth, including vehicles with a soft landing. When designing a vehicle for landing on the lunar surface, there was a lot of controversy about what it was like. At the time, the generally accepted hypothesis put forward by astronomer Thomas Gold was that the moon was covered in a thick layer of dust due to micrometeorite bombardment. But Korolev, who was familiar with another hypothesis - the Soviet volcanologist Heinrich Steinberg, ordered that the lunar surface be considered solid. His correctness was confirmed in 1966, when the Soviet apparatus Luna-9 made a soft landing on the Moon.

One more interesting history from the life of the great scientist and designer there was an episode with the preparation of an automatic station to be sent to one of the planets solar system. During its creation, the designers faced the problem of the extra weight of the research equipment on board the station. Sergei Korolev studied the drawings of the station, after which he carried out a test of the device, which was supposed to transmit to Earth information about the presence or absence of organic life on the planet. He took the device to the scorched Kazakh level 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 equipment.

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

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev passed away quite early - 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 an imprint on his health. By this time, Korolev had already managed to do a lot to fulfill his dream of conquering space, he put it into practice. But some projects, such as the lunar program of the USSR, turned out to be unrealized. The lunar project was curtailed after the death of an outstanding designer.

In 1966, the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union established the Sergey Pavlovich Korolev gold medal "For outstanding services in the field of rocket and space technology". Monuments were erected to him in Zhytomyr, Moscow and Baikonur. The memory of the designer was immortalized with a large number of streets named after him, as well as a memorial house-museum. In 1996, the city of Kaliningrad near Moscow was renamed the science city Korolev in honor of the outstanding designer who worked here rocket technology. Also, a pass on the Tien Shan, a large lunar crater and an asteroid were 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