Sergei Korolev

Sergei Korolev trained as an aircraft designer before the Great Purge swallowed him in 1938 on false charges; he spent nearly six years in prisons and labour camps, including months in Kolyma. Released, he returned to engineering and directed development of the R-7 rocket, the world's first ICBM. Modified versions of the R-7 carried Sputnik 1 into orbit in 1957, then Laika, then Luna 2 to the Moon's surface. In 1961 his team launched Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1, making him the first human in space; in 1965 Alexei Leonov walked outside Voskhod 2, the first human EVA. Korolev died in January 19…