Sergei Korolev centennial

[ToSeek]

Sergey Korolev – Universe Beating In His Heart (http://www.russia-ic.com/education_science/science/science_overview/356/)

Sergey Pavlovich Korolev is an eminent engineer and scientist, who dedicated his life to rocket and space technology. Bearing the Title of Hero of Socialist Labour, being the winner of the Lenin Prize (one of the highest awards in the USSR) and the academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergey Pavlovich Korolev is a creator of Russian strategic missile weapons of medium and intercontinental range and founder of applied space exploration. Korolev’s engineering developments in the field of rocket technology are extremely valuable for evolution of Russian missile weapons and essential for world space exploration industry. He deserves to be called the father of domestic rocket and space technology, providing strategic parity and making our state a leading rocket-and-space power.

Sergey Korolev was born on January 12, 1907, in the town of Zhitomir.

[Ronald Brak]

I think we should all reflect on the contributions Sergey Korolev made to space exploration and we should also reflect on if we are getting enough fibre in our diet. If only he'd had more fruit he might not have needed that bowel operation that ended up being botched. Poor guy.

[tlbs101]

I thought it was cool that the writers and producers of Stargate SG-1 named the 3rd earth battlecruiser, the "Korelev". They knew how important his contributions to space exploration were.

[Larry Jacks]

I think we should all reflect on the contributions Sergey Korolev made to space exploration and we should also reflect on if we are getting enough fibre in our diet. If only he'd had more fruit he might not have needed that bowel operation that ended up being botched. Poor guy.

From what I've read in articles such as this one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev), many of Korolev's health problems could be traced to his years in the gulag and under arrest due to Stalin's madness and paranoid.

Other members of the RNII had also been arrested and the group's military leader was executed. Every person of significance who worked at the institute was executed during 1937-8, leaving Korolyov very fortunate to have even survived. The program was set back for years and fell far behind the rapid progress taking place in Germany. Stalin's purges during this period left his military nearly decapitated, and gravely weakened the army just prior to the Nazi invasion in 1941.

Sergei survived the gulag experience, but he lost all of his teeth, suffered a broken jaw, and developed a heart condition. He stayed five months in the camp (actually a surface gold mine) and spent his time there performing manual labor. Back in Moscow, however, they had decided to re-investigate his case. As a result he was to be shipped back west. On the train trip home, however, he suffered a case of scurvy and nearly died.

Following the reinvestigation, Korolyov's sentence was reduced to eight years. At this point a number of notable Russians interceded on his behalf, and he was kept from returning to the gulag. Instead he was assigned to a "sharashka", a type of penitentiary for intellectuals and the educated. These were effectively a slave-labor camp for scientists and engineers to work on projects assigned by the communist party leadership.

[ToSeek]

Celebrating Korolyov (http://www.thespacereview.com/article/781/1)

Korolyov is in some way responsible for every craft that has ever taken a cosmonaut into space. This alone is a great legacy. When you consider that many of Korolyov’s achievements spurred the US space program on to greater accomplishments, one has to wonder how much exploration of space any nation would have accomplished in his absence.

[publiusr]

He died two days after his 59th Birthday---Nine months before I was born.

It may well be that I was concieved the day the Chief Designer died...

The day that killed the Space Race...

---It's been a downhill slide ever since.

[Ronald Brak]

From what I've read in articles such as this one, many of Korolev's health problems could be traced to his years in the gulag and under arrest due to Stalin's madness and paranoid.

They were definitely bad places for your health.

[publiusr]

Sputnik/R-7 birthday nearing