Sergey Korolev
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (Серге́й Па́влович Королёв) (January 12, 1907 - January 14, 1966) was the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer, known only as "the chief designer" during his lifetime. He was born in Zhitomir, Imperial Russia (now Ukraine).
Korolev launched the first Soviet liquid-fueled rocket in 1933. He was arrested on falsified charges of disloyalty in 1938 and served a year in the gulag before being allowed to pursue rocketry in earnest.
Korolev began work with the Soviet space program which started off with building an exact copy of the German V-2 rocket, designated as the R-1 rocket by the Soviets. He then progressed to designing the R-7, the first ICBM, designed to lob a 5,000 kg nuclear bomb on the United States. Korolev oversaw numerous firsts of space exploration: the first satellite, the first animals and people in space, the first EVA, and the first craft on the moon and Venus, Luna 2 and Venera 3.
Korolev's huge N1 rocket was designed to go to the moon, but Korolev died before the first test during an operation to remove a cancerous tumor.
A crater on Mars was named in his honor.
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