At the age of four, on the Nezhin Fairground, sitting on his grandfather's shoulders, he saw an airplane piloted by one of the pioneers of Russian aviation, Sergei Utochkin, and perhaps it was this strongest childhood impression that determined the rest of the great design-engineer’s life.
At the age of 17, he has even become at author of the project of a non-motorized K-5 aircraft, officially accepted for construction. Since the autumn of 1926, he was a student of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, where, under the mentorship of A.N. Tupolev, he defended a diploma project of the SK-4 light aircraft with a record flight range.
The idea of developing an aircraft using the force of jet thrust arose from Sergei Pavlovich after getting acquainted with the works of K.E. Tsiolkovsky. In the 1930s, despite the enormous technical difficulties of developing a new type of equipment, an arrest, working in Tupolev’s "Sharashka*" (*design bureau), Korolev managed to achieve significant success. Under his control, by 1938, projects of liquid-fueled cruise and long-range ballistic missiles, an aircraft missile for firing at air and ground targets and anti-aircraft solid-fuel missiles were developed. And on February 28, 1940, the first flight of the RP-318-1 rocket plane with a working engine took place…
With loyalty to his cause, inexhaustible enthusiasm, revolutionary developments, titanic work and sovereign thinking, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev steadily went towards his goal from the very beginning of his work in a till then unknown scientific field. Thanks to his example, ensuring strategic parity, making the USSR an advanced rocket and space power and a key figure in human space exploration became a priority to our country. Under the leadership of Korolev, Chairman of the Council of Chief Designers of the USSR (1946-1966), the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth and the flight into space of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin were organized and carried out. The space age began then.
For the team of the Tsiolkovsky Space Film Festival, today's anniversary is an ultimate reason to once again recall and express our immense respect for the scientist, thanks to whom humanity took the first and most important steps towards the exploration of Near-Earth space, for the design-engineer whose ideas still form the basis of the Russian space program.
Fifty years ago, on April 12, 1972, the film Taming of Fire was released. Sergey Pavlovich Korolev became the prototype of the main character, brilliantly played by Kirill Lavrov. We are pleased to announce that the film will be shown as part of the Retrospective program of our film festival. Wonderful performers, an exciting plot, amazing music by Andrey Petrov are a tribute to the memory of the great designer and organizer, whose 115th anniversary we are celebrating today.