SERGEI KOROLEV, The Apprenticeship of a Space Pioneer

This biography is a vivid account of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, a lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950's and 1960's.

Aviation book
Sergei Korolev, the Constructor - in - Chief of the Soviet space programme, had a short powerful neck ; when he looked at a rocket he never threw his head back, but seemed to glower at it. People who did not know him well got the impression that he was dissatisfied. But on this day there were no such persons on the launching pad.
Korolev had arrived early, and left his car on the concrete apron. He was now walking slowly up the slight slope to where the rocket was standing. He had ’ flu ’ and probably a fever, but he hadn't taken his temperature or called his doctor. Whatever for ? All the same he had no right to fall ill until after the launch. The wind was cold and piercing. Korolev raised the collar of his heavy old overcoat. From the change in the pace of the comings and goings on the launching pad, and the business - like, energetic bearing of those who remained, he knew his arrival had been noted. He nodded to one man, and to another, and crossed the tracks to the bunker. From behind him came the wooden voice of the public address system :
’ Attention ! Time check in one minute ! Prepare to fuel... . ’
He knew and sensed that no need to interfere. They knew everything themselves. It would only make people nervous. They were good lads. Now fuelling was beginning. The electric motors of the pump and fans would start up with a dull rumble, the valves begin to knock like loud, sharp pistol shots, and the air to hiss viciously in the vents. He had heard them all so many times. Every note, every quiet click of the magnetic starter, every rattle of the command - post loudspeaker, for him were part of the melody of a launch, and he would immediately detect any false note in it. He didn't need to look at the instruments. ( ... )
Extract from page No. 7.

Yaroslav Kirillovich Golovanov ( June 2nd, 1932 - May 21st, 2003 ) was born in Moscow ( former Soviet Union, present Russia ). His father was director of a theatre ( today's Gogol's Theatre ), and his mother was an actress.
Yaroslav Golovanov studied rocket engineering at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, finishing in 1957 ( ? ). During 1956 - 58, he worked in a laboratory of the Ministry of Aviation Industry.
In September 1957, he started to write for the science department of the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, working there as an editor from February 1958. From 1968 to 2003 he was an independent contributor of the newspaper.
Yaroslav Golovanov soon specialized in space exploration. The first novel, Кузнецы грома ( Thunder's Blacksmiths ), deals with the lives of Soviet rocket designers. Between 1965 and 1966, Yaroslav Golovanov was a member of a team of three journalists, unofficial candidates for a space flight. The team was disbanded after Sergei Korolev's death ( Yaroslav Golovanov tried, in vain, to become a cosmonaut in the early 1990's ).
In 1982 he published Дорога на космодром ( Doroga na kosmodrom, The Path to Cosmodrome ), a detailed overview of the history of space exploration, mainly in the Soviet Union. His detailed biography of Sergei Korolev was published in 1994 under name Королев. Факты и мифы ( Korolev - facts and myths ). Yaroslav Golovanov's diary of fifty years was published in 1998 - 99 under the title Заметки вашего современника ( Notes from Your Contemporary ). In total, he published 20 books, which were translated into 25 languages.
Yaroslav Golovanov passed away in Peredelkino ( southwest of Moscow, Russia ), at the age of 70.
( source : Wikipedia )