Name:    Sergey Korolyov

Date of birth:      1907, 12 January

Place of birth:    in Ukraine, Zhytomyr

Early years:     His mother Maria and his father Pavel separated due to financial difficulties. Although Pavel later wrote to Maria requesting a meeting with his son, Sergei was informed by his mother that his father had died. Sergei never saw his father after the family break-up, and Pavel died in 1929 before his son learned the truth. Korolev grew up under the care of his grandparents. He received vocational training in carpentry and in various academics at the Odessa Building Trades School. In 1923 he joined the Society of Aviation and Aerial Navigation of Ukraine and the Crimea Then he graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, and later the Bauman Moscow Higner Technical School and the Moscow Pilot School.

Later years:  After graduation, Korolev worked with some of the best Soviet designers. He was a talanted engineer. Soon he got interested in cosmonautics.  He devoted all his life to designing of rockets and space systems which ensured success in the initial stages of investigation of outer space.

Famous for:   contruction, testing and lauching of the Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz spacecraft;

Date of death:  -1966, 14 January.