The OKB-154 Chief Designer whose third-stage engines pushed Luna and Gagarin into space
Winter 1941, a grain elevator in Berdsk. Exhausted workers digging foundations by night suddenly heard an orchestra. Kosberg's voice rang out: "Song helps us build and live!"
Born the son of a Jewish blacksmith in Slutsk, he worked his way through night school to the Moscow Aviation Institute. During the war his direct-injection systems gave the La-5 and La-7 fighters the climb rate and agility to dominate German aircraft, earning him the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War. After the war he moved OKB-154 (now KB Khimavtomatiki) to Voronezh and pivoted to liquid rocketry; nine months after meeting Korolev in 1958, his bureau delivered the RD-0105, the world's first engine ignited in space, as the third stage that achieved escape velocity for Luna 1, 2, and 3. His RD-0109 then powered the Vostok upper stage that carried Gagarin into orbit, and his design bureau became the sole supplier of upper-stage engines for the entire R-7, Soyuz, and Proton launcher families.
Career Timeline
- 1931Joined CIAM; researched direct fuel-injection systems
- 1940Deputy Chief Designer of Plant No. 33 OKB, head of direct-injection design bureau
- 1941–46Chief Designer, OKB-154 (Berdsk): NV-3U direct-injection unit for ASh-82FN engine on La-5, La-7, Tu-2
- 1946–54OKB-154 relocated to Voronezh; transition to turbojet fuel systems and liquid rocket engines
- 1958–59RD-0105 (9 months): third-stage engine for Luna 1, 2, 3; first engine ignited in space
- 1960Lenin Prize; Doctor of Technical Sciences
- 1961RD-0109: Vostok third stage, Gagarin orbital insertion. Hero of Socialist Labor
- 1962–65Led upper-stage engine development for Soyuz, Molniya, and Proton launchers