He was one of the greatest designers of the 20th century, the chief engineer of the world's first Jet Institute, a pioneer of astronautics (it was G.E. Langemak who introduced this term), co-author of the legendary Katyusha - but received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor only posthumously. He was arrested following a denunciation from a subordinate, condemned as a “saboteur,” “conspirator,” and “enemy of the people,” and executed in January 1938. Half a century later, Marshal Ustinov said: “If Langemak had not been shot, I would have been his deputy, and the first cosmonaut would have been not Gagarin, but Titov.” If Georgy Erikhovich had managed to complete his developments, we would now be mastering the Jupiter system, and flying to the moon (as Korolev dreamed) “on trade union vouchers.” Why did all these great undertakings go to waste? Who killed the great designer and appropriated his discoveries? How was the Jet Institute destroyed, slowing down the development of astronautics for decades? Paying tribute to Langemak's genius, this fundamental biography sheds light on the most heroic and tragic pages of our native history.