cosmonauts, orbital space stations, including the Mir station, the first Soviet space shuttle Buran, the Energia rocket, and was a frequent visitor of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, attending the many launches. He worked together with the chief Soviet rocket engineer Sergey Korolyov. Oddly enough, just like many elements of the Soviet economy, the Ministry of General Machine Building at its numerous plants spread from the western part of the USSR to the far east coast also produced TV sets, refrigerators and other home appliances. A skilled manager, Sergey Afanasyev often balanced the "warring factions" - the different opinions and approaches voiced by academics and rocket engineers such as Vladimir Chelomei and Mikhail Yangel, who competed in designing rocket engines, as well as the interests of different Ministries, including the Ministry of Defence, headed by Dmitriy Ustinov, and also the Communist Party's Central Committee. Afanasyev also worked closely with Valentin Glushko, one of the principal Soviet designers of spacecraft and rockets during the Soviet/American Space Race. During his long career, Sergey Afanasyev dealt directly with top Soviet leaders, including Leonid Brezhnev, Konstantin Chernenko, Yuri Andropov and Mikhail Gorbachev, discussing with them and getting funding for both space and defence programmes and projects. He was also a close friend of Boris Yeltsin, who he knew since Yeltsin was the head of the Yekaterinburg regional Communist Party Committee. Afanasyev was elected as deputy of the Congress of Peoples Deputies from the Yekaterinburg region. Sergey Afanasyev was one of the few people who refused to take orders from the feared Soviet police chief Lavrentiy Beria. In the 1950s, Beria was pushing for a swift production of missiles and indicated his orders were to be carried out within several months. At a meeting in the Kremlin, Sergey Afanasyev was the only engineer who voiced opposition to the plan, calling it unrealistic. Beria's first reaction was to arrest the young engineer, but he was later told that in that case the production would be delayed for over a year because Afanasyev was the only person on the ground knowledgeable enough to take charge. After a reshuffle in the early 1980, Sergey Afanasyev was appointed as the head of the Ministry of Heavy and Transport Machinery, where he worked from 1983 to 1987. Death From 1988 until his death he was the Senior Science Consultant of the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. Sergey Afanasyev is buried