Sergei Korolev
1907 – 1966
The Chief Designer behind Sputnik and Gagarin.
The Soviet 'Chief Designer,' Korolev led the rocketry program that launched Sputnik in 1957 and Gagarin in 1961 — his identity a state secret until his death. He built the R-7, the ancestor of the rockets still flying today.
The orbital and delta-v tools here describe the arithmetic he turned into hardware. He survived the Gulag to open the space age.
Portrait: a stylized blueprint-line rendering, not a photograph.
Contributions in the toolbox
- 1957
The equation, staged, reaches orbit with Sputnik.
→ Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation - 1957
First artificial satellite proves the arithmetic.
→ Circular Orbit Velocity & Period