With the launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth, the spacecraft's designer, Sergei Korolev, rocked the world. A media riot erupted in the West, and the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, added to the panic by refusing to reveal Korolev's identity. He simply referred to him as the Chief Designer.
The Soviet's Chief Designer seemed unbeatable. When the United States announced plans to launch a satellite around the Sun in March 1959, Korolev launched one in January. And when the rocket engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California planned to send a probe on a fly-by of the Moon by July 1960, the Soviets crash-landed an unmanned Luna 2 on the Moon in September 1959, and then, just three weeks later, successfully orbited the Moon and returned the first photographs of its dark side with Luna 3.
Throughout the early 1960s, the USSR's manned space program, guided by Korolev's steady hand, remained well ahead of NASA's. On April 26, 1961, Vostok 1 put the first man in space. In August, a second cosmonaut roared into orbit and hurtled around the Earth for an entire day. A year later, Korolev managed a double launch that put two Russians into orbit simultaneously. Next, he sent the first woman into space and then the first two-person capsule followed by a capsule with three cosmonauts. He also engineered the first space walk and the first docking of two ships in space. All of them were Vostok missions; all of them were "firsts." The Chief Designer's sorcery seemed boundless.
By 1964, Korolev had already conceived the Soyuz family of ships which were designed to link up in Earth orbit and circle the Moon carrying a crew of three. Korolev believed he could have the system flying by 1965 and could land the first human on the Moon by 1966. He wanted to develop the craft immediately, but Khrushchev was more interested in the prestige and political momentum of the Vostok missions. Korolev's Soyuz designs were set aside for four years while Khrushchev's demands for spectacular stunts drained resources and allowed NASA to catch up.
The Soyuz delay was critical, especially when Korolev died of a heart attack in 1966 during a surgical procedure. Korolev had combined passion and massive talent as few Soviets had before or since. His passing finally brought him the recognition he deserved at home, but he remained unknown in the West. After his death, the Soviet Union was unable to maintain its lead in space exploration.
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