Korolev - the rocket-city of Russia

von Ralf Heckel

There are two highways, a train and a large rocket company. OK, there is no Monte Sano, but some skyscrapers. The sign of this town is a white rocket, the R-1 (russians first long distance rocket, a copy of V2). She is standing on a podest at the border of the town. Korolev-City has the same size as Huntsville Alabama.

But today it is colder as in Alabama, 10 degrees under freeze. White trees are gleaming in the deep sun. The bus convoi stops at a next memorial of Korolev. Now it is a big statue of his complete body. He "walks" with lage steps and a "blowing" jacket to west. The guests put also flowers down and beetween Korolev´s shoes.

This town has a lot of memorials to honor S.P. Korolev, Sputnik and its rockets. On each street you can read a name of rocket hardware or cosmonauts. It is a town into the future. A lot of things were changed in the last years here. The Korolev-administration want to change this town into the cleanest and most ecological town of Russia. Now it is really not so gray as in the history.