Sergei Korolev

Hello, my name is Sergei Korolev, and I am known as the Chief Designer of the Soviet space program. My story begins on January 12th, 1907, the day I was born. When I was just a little boy, something happened that changed my life forever. In 1913, I went to an airshow and saw an airplane soar through the sky for the first time. I was amazed. From that moment on, all I could think about was flying. I read every book I could find and taught myself all about airplanes and how they worked. I dreamed of building my own flying machine. In 1923, when I was a teenager, I finally did it. I designed and built my very first glider. Seeing it fly convinced me that I had to spend my life working with aircraft, so I decided to go to college to study aviation.

After college, my dreams grew even bigger. I wasn't just thinking about flying through the air anymore; I was thinking about traveling to the stars. I met other brilliant engineers and scientists who shared my dream of space travel. Together, in 1931, we formed a group called GIRD, which was short for Group for the Study of Reactive Motion. Our goal was to build rockets that could one day reach space. It was very exciting work. After many tests, we had a huge success in 1933 when we launched our very first liquid-fueled rocket. It was a small step, but it proved our ideas could work. However, my journey had some very difficult moments. In 1938, I was arrested during a very troubled time in my country. Even in those tough years, I never gave up hope. I kept my mind busy, thinking about engineering and designing new ideas for planes and rockets.

After I was released, I was given a very important and secret job. I became the 'Chief Designer' of my country's space program. My identity was kept a secret from the public because my work was so important. It was a time of great competition called the Space Race, where different countries were trying to be the first to explore space. The pressure was enormous, but my team and I worked tirelessly. We designed a new and powerful rocket called the R-7. It was this rocket that would launch our greatest achievement. On October 4th, 1957, the world listened in awe. We had successfully launched Sputnik 1, the very first satellite to orbit the Earth. As it circled the globe, it sent out a simple 'beep-beep' signal that anyone with a radio could hear. We had officially opened the door to space.

Launching a satellite was incredible, but my greatest dream was to send a human being into space. This was the most difficult challenge yet. We had to build a special spacecraft that could keep a person safe on a journey beyond our planet. My team and I designed the Vostok spacecraft, which had everything a person, called a cosmonaut, would need. After years of hard work and careful planning, the historic day arrived. On April 12th, 1961, a brave cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin climbed into the Vostok capsule and became the first person to orbit the Earth. He saw our planet from space, a beautiful blue and white ball. This was not our only great achievement. In 1963, we made history again by sending the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, into space.

I lived to be 59 years old, and my work was one of the biggest secrets in the world. It was only after my life was over that my name, Sergei Korolev, was revealed as the person behind all of those amazing missions. My dream, which started at an airshow when I was a boy, led to the beginning of the space age. The powerful R-7 rocket I helped design was so successful that updated versions of it are still used today, carrying satellites and astronauts into the sky. I hope my story shows that with a big dream and the determination to never give up, you can reach for the stars.