Boris Chertok

Boris Chertok Jewsejewitsch (Russian Борис Евсеевич Черток, scientific transliteration Boris Evseevič Čertok; born March 1, 1912 in Łódź, † December 14, 2011 in Moscow) was a Soviet rocket engineer and space pioneer with an important role in the history of space travel.

Life

Chertok was born in 1912 to Russian parents son in the Polish part of the Russian Empire. The family fled in 1914 during the First World War to Moscow. 1929 ended Chertok the middle school and applied unsuccessfully to the electrical engineering faculty of Moscow technical university. He then worked as an electrician in an aircraft factory in which he was elected after two years in the Komsomolleitung. In 1935, he was head of the design office and played a key role in the development of electronics for a Soviet polar expedition. Chertok first came into contact with missiles when he worked on a pilot and control system for propulsion of the rocket vehicle BI-1. In April 1945, Chertok was sent to Germany to scout the German missile technology. There he came for the first time in Bleicherode with Sergei Korolev in contact and in August he became its office OKB -1 assigned in which he particularly cared for the control of the missiles. He remained until January 1947 in Germany. Then he was transferred to the nascent aerospace complex in Kapustin Yar. From 1956 to 1992 he was deputy chief designer of Korolev's design bureau or its successor.

Chertok played in the Soviet space a key role, as he worked on the control system of the first intercontinental ballistic missile R -7, the first manned rocket Vostok and Soyuz rocket. He also worked on the engine control system KORD heavy Soviet rocket N -1 in the Soviet manned lunar program.

Writings (selection )

• Gagarin's flight began in Bleicherode. Elbe- Dnieper -Verlag, Klitzschen 2005, ISBN 3-933395-71-2.
• Rockets and People - German missiles in Soviet hands. Elbe- Dnieper -Verlag, Klitzschen 1998, ISBN 3-933395-00-3.
• Rockets and People - The victory Korolev. Elbe- Dnieper -Verlag, Klitzschen 2000, ISBN 3-933395-01-1.
• Rockets and People - Hot days of the Cold War. Elbe- Dnieper -Verlag, Klitzschen 2001, ISBN 3-933395-02- X.
• Rockets and People - The hunt for the moon. Elbe- Dnieper -Verlag, Klitzschen 2001, ISBN 3-933395-04-6.

The four autobiographical books missiles and people who give deep insights about the history of rocket-building in the USSR, are offered by NASA for free down load in the English language:

• Rockets and People, NASA books. ( as of October 2012).