Sergei Pavlovich Korolyev (1907-66), Soviet spacecraft designer. Korolyev's parents were both teachers. He was educated at the Kiev Polytechnic and the Moscow Higher Technical School. An early interest in gliders and the writings of Tsiolkovski led to his working on the problems of rocketry. As a result of the Great Terror, Korolyev spent most of World War 2 in a special prison in the Arctic. He was later released to work with captured German rocket experts. After Korolyev's death, it was revealed that he was the chief designer behind the A-1 family of launchers, used for the World's first satellite and every USSR/CIS manned mission to date.