Boris Raushenbach; Russian Rocket Scientist

Boris Raushenbach, 86, a rocket scientist who helped the Soviet space program photograph the dark side of the moon. Born in what is now St. Petersburg to a Russian family of German descent, Raushenbach was sent to a labor colony in the Ural Mountains during World War II by Soviet authorities who distrusted his background. But he continued his scientific work in prison, and after the war worked with Sergei Korolyov--the father of the Soviet space program. Raushenbach worked on the Soviet space program during its heyday in the 1950s and ‘60s, when the country sent the first satellite and first human into space. He was featured in a 1966 Soviet television program explaining his role in the Soviet unmanned satellite mission to photograph the dark side of the moon. Later in life, Raushenbach served as a member of the board of directors for New York financier George Soros’ Cultural Initiative Foundation, which distributed grants to Russian scientists and teachers. On Tuesday in Moscow.