Homage to Boris Chertok

When we talk about the beginnings of the space era in the Soviet Union, the two names that come immediately to mind are usually Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, and Sergei Korolev the genius that designed the R7 rocket, nowadays known as Soyuz. And yet, another “man behind the scenes”, one of those who work on the ground and never experience the glory of those who blast off into orbit, played a fundamental role in the Soviet successes. His name was Boris Chertok. Born on 11 March 1912, he died at the age of 99 on 14 December 2011 (he retired in 1992 at the age of 80!). A brilliant engineer, he also wrote a 4 volume book that is considered to be the reference as regards space history; translated into English, it bears the title “Rockets and People”.
Below is a short EuroNews video and the first part of a Russian documentary devoted to this great man in the conquest of space.

Published on 16 December 2011

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