Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov was the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s.

Korolev was born in Zhytomyr, a small provincial center in central Ukraine, then part of Imperial Russia.Korolev continued his schooling at the Odessa construction professional (Stroyprofshkola No. 1) where he received vocational training in carpentry as well as various academics.He decided in 1924 to attend the Kiev Polytechnical Institute as they had an aviation branch. In July of the next year he was accepted into the Moscow Bauman Highest Technical School (MVTU).

It was during 1930 that Korolev became interested in the possibilities of liquid rocket engines. As his interest was primarily in aircraft, he saw the potential for use of these engines to propel airplanes. In 1931, together with Friedrich Zander, a space travel enthusiast, he participated in the creation of the Jet Propulsion Research Group (GIRD), one of the earliest state-sponsored centers for rocket development in the USSR. In May 1932 Korolev was appointed chief of the group.

Finally on October 4th, 1957, launched on a rocket that had only successfully launched once, the satellite was placed in orbit.