Boris Yevseyevich Chertok was born in 1912 in Poland, and his family moved to Moscow when he was three years old. In 1930, he began work as an electrician in a Moscow suburb. In 1934, he joined the design bureau of Viktor Bolkhovitinov, a noted designer of bombers. In 1946, Chertok joined the newly established NII-88 institute as head of the control systems department and worked hand-in-hand with legendary Chief Designer Sergey Korolev. Chertok became one of Korolev's closest aides in developing control systems for ballistic missiles and spacecraft, eventually becoming deputy chief designer of...