The BBC has a fascinating profile of Sergei Korolyov, the Soviet Werner Von Braun. Both were the architects of the modern space age, but where Von Braun was feted as major figure on the national and international scene, Korolyov spent eight years in a Stalinist labour camp in the '30s and '40s and the deepest obscurity that the Communists kept him in afterwards, despite his success in putting the first satellite and man into orbit, was nearly as bad.
I remember reading a book about Korolyov back in the late '60s based on leaked information and it was astonishing when I taught university in the '80s that even seasoned space engineers would greet my bringing up his name with blank looks.
Beware the gratitude of princes.. and totalitarians.
1 comment:
There is no doubt in my mind that without the stimulus of Korolyov's success in building rockets that the Apollo program headed by von Braun would never have flown. Certainly he would have never gotten the political support and therefore the money. It is ironic that both Korolyov and von Braun had to exert so much energy merely playing the political games required to fund their work.
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