Father of the Katyusha rocket, the engineer who perfected the RS‑82 and RS‑132 and coined the word 'cosmonautics'
During the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion, mutineers arrested Langemak and sentenced him to death. He was held from 2 March to 18 April and freed only after the Red Army crushed the uprising — twenty years before he would build the rockets that became the Katyusha.
Of German descent, Langemak began developing smokeless-powder rockets at the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) and, as chief engineer of the Rocket Research Institute (RNII, 1934–1938), brought the RS-82 and RS-132 solid-fuel rockets to operational readiness. These became the core munition of the BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher: one of the most iconic Soviet weapons of World War II. He introduced the term 'cosmonautics' into the Russian language and corresponded with Tsiolkovsky about the peaceful space applications of rocketry. Arrested on false charges during the Great Purge in 1937, he was shot on 11 January 1938, rehabilitated in 1955, and posthumously made a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1991.
Career Timeline
- 1916–18Entered Petrograd University for Japanese philology; graduated from Naval Ensign School, served in the fleet
- 1919–22Mobilized into the Red Army; battery commander and assistant division chief, Kronstadt Fortress
- 1923–28Graduated from the Red Army Military-Technical Academy
- 1928–33Led development of smokeless-powder rockets RS-82 and RS-132 at the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL)
- 1934–37Deputy director and chief engineer of RNII (NII-3); Military Engineer 1st Rank
- 1937–38Arrested by NKVD; sentenced to death by Military Collegium, shot same day, 11 January 1938
- 1955/1991Posthumously rehabilitated (1955); Hero of Socialist Labor (1991)