Boris Rauschenbach was a Russian rocket engineer and Academician who headed the development of space vehicle control systems in the Soviet Union during the first 10 years of the Space Age, beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957. While a student in St. Petersburg in the 1920s, he carried out research at the famous Gas Dynamics Laboratory. In 1937, having graduated from the Institute of Aviation, he joined the Moscow Scientific Rocket Research Institute where he began work with Sergei Korolev. During his career he knew and spoke with Hermann Oberth and in 1994 published an important biography of the German rocket pioneer.