The 82-kilometer-diameter crater Korolev was named after Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907-1966), the chief constructor and father of Russian space technology. Engineer Korolev developed the first Russian intercontinental rocket R7, the precursor of the modern Soyuz rockets that are still operated today. With his rocket and spacecraft design, Korolev was responsible for the first man-made satellite of Earth Sputnik in 1957, and for the first human spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961.