Engineers and designers
Serhiy Korolyov
January 12, 1907 — January 14, 1966
- Rocket designer
Zhytomyr-born chief designer of Sputnik and the Vostok spacecraft. In 1924–1926 he studied at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where he took up gliding.
Biography
Serhiy (Sergei) Korolyov was born in Zhytomyr on 12 January 1907 (30 December 1906, Old Style). As a boy he spent several years from 1914 in Kyiv with his grandparents, the Moskalenkos, before moving to Odesa with his mother.
In autumn 1924 he entered the mechanical faculty of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, which had a gliding club. In summer 1926 he transferred to the Moscow Higher Technical School to pursue aviation. Rocket experiments, arrest and the Gulag (1938–1944) followed, and after the war he led the programme that launched the first artificial satellite (1957) and the first man into space (1961). He died in Moscow on 14 January 1966.
In Kyiv he is remembered by a statue on the KPI campus and “Korolyov’s Oak” at 14 Akademika Yanhelia Street; Kyiv School No. 36 bears his name.
Kyiv in their life
- Kyiv Polytechnic Institute — student of mechanical engineering in 1924–1926; statue on campus.
- 14 Akademika Yanhelia St — “Korolyov’s Oak”.
Places in our guide
Gallery
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